Location: Maryland

It's a Rhododendron, the flowers are a welcome sight in spring. Maybe you could post a photo of the flowers when they open?

The leaves look like a rhododendron. You will soon have blooms to help the ID.

Oops! Janet beat me to it.

AKA....Deer Smorgasbord

AlyssaBlue said:AKA....Deer Smorgasbord

I've never known deer to eat rhoddies. They never touch mine.

Here they just seem to go for the new growth.

Robert- That's good to know. When we lived in PA, the deer would eat most of the Rhododendron and azalea down to sticks! We had about 30 plants total, some I would have a hard time finding after the snow melted in spring because the plants had been chewed down to the ground. The core of the problem was neighbors feeding deer in the subdivision, and it would draw a lot of deer in to the area. Maybe your area has other, more tempting food for the deer.

I would say, that one time we had a giant rhododendron, probably 15' tall in between the deck and the house so the deer couldn't eat it. Instead of removing it because it was too large, we cut it back to about a 4' round. That same season, it didn't skip a beat, and grew back more full and looked very nice. So if anyone is worried about pruning one too much, I really don't think you can.