I tried v.rhytidophyllum in my zone -7b/8a- gardens, and they looked awful all winter. Two thirds of the leaves fell off with cold weather, and the remaining drooped so badly that it made me feel droopy!

But the deer had no interest. We have a herd of 18 who meander through and graze at will.

Deer haven't touched our korean spice viburnum or ourdoublefile viburnum, and we have a lot of deer around here.

Just saw this post, so I'm not sure if I can still be of any help, but here goes . . . I planted a small (probably 2' tall) viburnum dentatum I purchased at a native plant sale about 5 ft. from the edge of our woods about 3 years ago. It has repeatedly been defoliated by deer in early spring, but has managed to cling to life. Finally, this year, I put a wire cage around it, and it was able to fully leaf out for the first time. I'm hoping if it can grow a few feet taller, it will be able to survive a little browsing by the deer.

I also have a Viburnum lantana 'Mohican' in my back yard in an area that the deer regularly pass through. They seem to munch on this a little in early spring, when not much else has any new growth, but after that they leave it alone.

I just planted two more viburnums yesterday -- v. trilobum 'Wentworth' and v. dentatum 'Chicago Lustre' -- next to the new deck we just finished. I'm hoping these will be somewhat protected by their proximity to our house. Some areas near the house seem to be a NO DEER ZONE for some reason, while other areas are grazed regularly, so we'll see.