What's a good way to cage a rose bush to protect from deer predation without it being too unsightly?

I’m having trouble finding anything that’s attractive rather than just utilitarian. If you know someone who works in wrought iron or welding, may you could adapt something like this into a more attractive version? Or something like this and add netting? What about using a decorative trellis to create a fence – like 3 or 4 of these?

I will probably have a look at the stuff at the local Agway and chat with the staff. Everyone around here gardens, and thus everyone around here has a vendetta against the deer.

And I suspect that if I stopped being lazy, I could think of a decent solution. In spite of the adorable factor of the twin fawns born this spring, it is hard not to have murderous thoughts.

I know there are repellent sprays one can use that might be easier than caging.
Call around or look online for deer repellent. You can also try cayenne pepper or other pepper sprays. I have a friend using a product right now but do not know it;s name, and she says you use it once a week for a few weeks then once a month after that. It may have to do with conditioning the deer.

I once hung a wreath of homegrown hot peppers on the gate to my garden and watched a doe take a bite of the peppers and explode into a bucking, head shaking mess. haha

@Coloma:The sprays are temporary (one rain wipes them out) and only marginally successful.

How many wreaths of peppers would you have had to hang in order to discourage the local herd. (And how often would you have to replace them?)

@gailcalled

It only took one bite, one time, with the pepper wreath, the one problem deer never came back. I think the peppers remained viable for that particular summer. The Cayenne sprinkled on and around will immediately effect them. One whiff up the old nose and they will run away forever. I think the trick is consistency for awhile, but this doesn’t take into account any new visitors that have not been conditioned that your rose is not edible.

It’s all a matter of discovery and just depends on how much deer traffic you have.
If it is the same couple day after day they will quickly learn to avoid the bad tasting/smelling plants, but…if there are multiple deer wandering through you would have to keep on applying the pepper every so often depending on the weather conditions, just like the sprays.
Heh…you’ll love this…..

Left my garage door up the other night for the cats and the cover off my hot tub. The raccoons rummaged through the trash and I found a banana peel, apple core and a disintegrated napkin in my cold hot tub the next morning.
Little muddy footprints all over the sides. Bah! lol

I read that you can plant Marigold around the outside perimeter of your garden and they will stay away.

@Coloma; A relaxed and stress-free racoon can do twice as much damage as his tense cousin is capable of.

No gnawed spare-rib bones? Raccoons find bananas and apples really boring.

At our camp in the woods in Lake Placid, we had a raccoon open the screen door and find our freezer on the porch, He tossed the contents, poked holes in the bags of frozen peas and bread but ate the entire chocolate cake I had baked for someone’s birthday.

He the entered the kitchen; I found a pile of cold cereal mixed with real Vt. maple syrup in a heap on the floor, plus maple-syrup stained footprints.

@gailcalled Gotta laugh at that! I had 3 in my kitchen one night eating lemon bundt cake. Let them eat cake!