If I were you I would go to a local garden center, not a big box store, at a time when the employees aren't busy and ask for recommendations. Before you go be sure to notice how much sun the area gets, is the sun morning or afternoon sun, is it dappled or is it full sun. So maybe on a sunny Saturday or Sunday chart how the sun hits the bed every couple of hours. Even if it's every 3 hours that would still be helpful.

I'm not sure telling a plant nursery employee that you had hydrangeas there and they grew well would be helpful enough, since some hydrangeas take more sun than others.

If you don't have a local nursery then maybe look at pieris, plum yew, mahonia and gardenia. I don't have much of a deer problem but I see these plants suggested as deer resistant. The yew may be too small but it is a lovely plant everywhere I have seen it - not as lovely as hydrangea but I do love the needle foliage on the yew. I have mahonia in my yard but I don't like it.

I see banana shrub and bottlebrush buckeye are on UGA's deer resistant plants list. I love both of those shrubs. Banana shrub is not particularly beautiful to me but I love the smell. I have a beautiful pink bottlebrush buckeye in my yard; mine is more like a very small tree than a shrub.

You have my sympathies. I don't have a deer problem but I do have a bunny problem. During the intermission between the death of my dog and the time we got another my bunny problem was terrible. My dogs are indoor pets but we play together out in my fenced back yard a lot; I guess the smell of them keeps the bunnies away now. Those darn bunnies did a lot of damage in the interim, though, and they still chew in the unfenced area of my yard.

Good luck whatever you decide.

Just don't make the mistake I did...In the winter is your foundation going to look bare 'cause the Hydrangeas are deciduous? Should you sprinkle in an evergreen or two? My Hydrangeas are deer free even though we see deer IN the yard all the time. We grow stinky herbs, use human hair from my head shavings, and Deer & Rabit Liquid Fence. My white buckeyes (Aesculus parviflora) and red buckeyes are going gang busters in a sight that sounds similar to yours----3-4 hours direct sun at 10 a.m. Same spot has black-eyed Susans (blooming), Callicarpa (beautyberry),

Conoclinium coelestinum (blue mist flower) and Beebalm (bloomed like mad). I hope this helps!