I would wait and see. Most likely if you can NOW protect them, they will recover.

Thanks Shadey....unfortunately there isn't much left to protect but I put chicken wire cages in place...just hoping the deer don't go for fothergillas....just put in some of them and have run out of wire! You know what's weird? I put out scraps of juicy lettuce just about everyday and the deer won't touch it! It's romaine...so it's got to be have a little nutrition in it...why do they have to go for my amelanchiers?!

I remember someone telling me to tie bars of soap on the shrubs ..... I tied about 15 bars on azaleas, etc, and the very next morning they were all gone! Try some thousand Island dressing on that romaine LOL
Fencing is the only way.

YEs, fencing and the anti-feedant repellants. The latter however wull require frequent reapplication to do their job. And guess what.....? They stink real bad! About like you'd expect old, rotten blood to smell like!

+oM

One thing I'm watching is...I took down a few tulip poplars....there are so many of them because the previous owners chopped a huge number of large poplars down and for every downed poplar you get 100 seedlings.....anyway I took one of these offshoots and placed it over a river birch that I'd just planted....the birch is in the middle of all the poplar branches and (so far) the deer have sidestepped the downed poplar and haven't noticed what's hiding in its branches! I just can't afford any more on wire and repellents and it isn't a long term solution.

Shadey: did they eat the azaleas and the soap? Wouldn't be surprised at all!! If I put thousand island dressing on the romaine the crows would take it...they took my burned toast yesterday! I LOVE crows....wish they'd eat deer :)