Viburnum prunifolium, Staphylea trifolia, Aesculus parviflora, Clethra alnifolia, Ilex opaca, Morella (Myrica) pensylvanica, Asimina triloba, Lindera benzoin (depending on deer preference), Aralia spinosa, Sambucus racemosa, Sambucus nigra, and Amelanchiar species. Most shrubs will benefit from a couple years of fencing or deer repellent sprays, and the sprays should be switched each year so the deer dont get used to them. In the event the deer do eat them, they will be able to regenerate if they've been allowed to establish for a few years.

An underbrush layer can help to fill it in and make it look a little more natural. Ferns, columbine, wild ginger, grasses, sedges, that kind of thing.

https://njaes.rutgers.edu/deer-resistant-plants/

Unfortunately my experience with Sambucus and Viburnum is that they lasted a week before being eaten to the ground.. Isn't Aralia tropical?

There are a few species of Aralia native to the northern USA, including spinosa. Spinosa is covered in thorns, which deter the deer. Did you try the spray or fencing? I planted a couple Viburnum prunifoliums last year and sprayed them and the deer left them alone. They left the Viburnum nudum alone too, which i didnt spray. They eat everything here too, leaving only multiflora and invasive vines.

I would only consider fencing a tree until it grows taller than deer can reach. Spraying is expensive, laborious and bound to fail. There are so many ways to hemorrhage time and money in gardening. I’m done messing around with deer. I’ve fenced an interior perimeter and that’s it.

I would like to learn more about this technique and how to apply it to my situation. These days I’m cutting back invasives before they leaf out, leaving piles to hopefully decompose. i have not been uprooting them or applying gglyophosphate surgically, so expect regrowth unless I dump loads of wood chips on top. But what are the replacement shrubs to be?

cutting back invasives before they leaf out, leaving piles

==>>> as i understand it.. plant a babe ... and put a dead branch over and around it ... its as simple as putting something the deer will trip over ..between it and the plant ...

i did an experiment once.. i pounded in 3 6 foot fence posts.. and just twined fishing line around it ... the theory being.. they would not see it.. but be confused by the interference with its ability to get to the young entwined oak ...

in other words.. a physical barrier ... using FREE materials already at hand ...

ken

btw: i use a mustard container filled with undiluted round up .. and apply a minor amount to every cut trunk ... and never get regrowth .... any stump killer would work ... you might like this system.. if you find out.. you are repeatedly cutting back the same stumps ... not many trees/shrubs.. die from cutting back alone ...

I also have used clear 70 lb. test fishing line wound around stakes and zigzagged around plants to deter deer. They have a tough time seeing it and won’t venture where they can’t be sure of a clear path.

Beware aralia. It is invasive and the very devil to rid yourself of once established.

"Beware aralia. It is invasive "

It's a native plant (Aralia spinosa). How is it invasive?

It may be a thug and a garden pest because it does selfseed, but by definition invasive plants are nonnative.

I don’t see native azalea listed here

also rhododendrons.

Blueberries are attractive too.