Shrubs for All Seasons

If you are looking for deer resistant shrubs to plant in your unfenced yard, the safest evergreens are spruce, juniper, and boxwood. Deer love yews, and indeed many of my old yews are now vase-shaped as in my yard. The deer even stand on their hind legs to reach up as high as possible to eat them, especially in winter when there is snow cover.

Deciduous shrubs that deer avoid are:

Pieris japonica
Spicebush
Crepe myrtle (sometimes)
Spirea
Tree peony
American holly
Mock orange
Lilac
Abelia
Daphne
Beauty berry
Winterberry
Clethra
Flowering quince
Ninebark
Itea
Lespedeza
Vitex
Rose of sharon

Try to plant so that there is multi-seasonal interest. For example, spring bloomers are viburnum, mountain laurel, peony, mock orange, azalea, flowering almond, forsythia, and spirea. Summer bloomers are vitex, caryopteris, buttonbush, hydrangea, ninebark, butterfly bush, clethra, itea, and calycanthus.

Look for shrubs that also have colorful fall foliage such as itea, dogwood, sumac, dwarf fothergilla, chokeberry, serviceberry, clethra, and calicarpa.

Reference:
Shrubs Large and Small: Natives and Ornamentals for Mid-West Gardens by Moya Andrews and Gillian Harris, Indiana University Press (2013).