What deer would really rather not eat

     Yesterday, there were six deer in the yard at lunchtime. With all the snow, pickings are slim. They must be ravenous.
     I took a walk around to inspect the damage.  The hollies had been grazed up at least another foot. The rhododendrons have been mangled, and the fragrant Florida anise (Illicium floridanum)--usually avoided--is decimated.  Even the prickly juniper (J.procumbens nana) has been nibbled.
     More interesting is what they didn't eat.  A spruce tree--small enough for easy grazing--the clumping bamboo (Fargesia),  the dog hobble (Leucothoe), and the lily of the valley shrub (Pieris) may be suffering from the cold, but they remain ungrazed.  The shade loving ornamental grasses, Hakone grass (Hakonechloa) and the drooping sedge (Carex pendula) are protruding from the snow, untouched.