The poor babies! Condolences. You might try using Milorganite to deter the deer. It's a fertilizer, not necessarily a deer repellant, but they do not like the smell. (Make sure to use gloves when applying.) Also, you can spray your plants with 1 gal water mixed with a couple tablespoons of hot sauce to perhaps prevent this from happening again. I would be cautious about fertilizing the half-eaten plants. Sometimes the new growth brought on by fertilizer can actually stress a damaged plant more. Hydrangeas will be going dormant soon, so fertilizing in August could mess with their schedule. It looks like you are in a very warm zone, though, so the dormancy schedule there may be later. Good luck!
