Is Forsythia deer resistant?

Yellow on bare stems before anything else wakes up. It flowers on old wood, so prune right after flowering, and never shear it into a ball unless you want almost no flowers.

Do deer eat forsythia?

Sometimes. Rutgers rates Forsythia Seldom Severely Damaged, B, and NC State's line is "The plant can be occasionally damaged by deer." What is damaged is the flowering, not the shrub: forsythia sets next spring's buds the summer before, on the old wood, and a shrub browsed through the winter opens in April with flowers only above the browse line. It survives. It looks eaten, which it was.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 5a to 8b, 8 to 10 feet, full sun or partial shade, yellow flowers in early spring before the leaves, tolerant of pollution, poor soil and salt. It suckers. The flowering shrubs page sets it beside the spireas and lilacs it is usually planted with.

Protecting forsythia

A young shrub in its first two winters is all within reach, and a wire ring for those winters costs less than the plant. After that, nothing; the flowers above 6 feet are safe and the shrub is unharmed either way.

If it is browsed

It regrows from anything, including the ground, and a forsythia cut to a stump comes back to size in three seasons. The flowers on the eaten wood are lost for one spring and the next year's buds set on the regrowth.