Good luck with the deer!! I battled with them for many years and finally last year realized it was either give up gardening altogether or do something that would make a sigificant difference, because NOTHING was effective when they had a smorgasbord of hundreds of daylilies, hostas, heucheras and roses to dine on. I was spraying every day, applying milorganite weekly, using electronic repellents, etc. and some things worked for a while, but nothing worked for very long. I tried soap, fishing line, human hair, human urine, every commercial repellant on the market, etc. and even electronic repellants.
An 8' deer fence was installed last fall. It wasn't cheap but when I think of all the money, time and effort spent purchasing every deer repellant known to man over many years, I could probably have paid for the fence several times over if I'd done it years ago. Now It is very reassuring to see scapes coming everywhere in the garden now with lush hosta and heuchera foliage and know the deer will NOT get them this year. I think deer have discouraged more people from growing daylilies than rust. It is incredibly frustrating to see a year's worth of effort in your garden, and many blooms, eaten up in just a few days. I feel your pain!
