I agree that in most situations a fence is needed, but depending on your property, it may not need to be 7 feet all around. We have stretches of areas where the fence is only around 5-6 feet, but the deer won't jump it. (We think the issue there has to do with low lying tree branches, but there is one stretch where they
could jump, but don't.)
What we are currently discovering (my conclusion may prove wrong come this fall, but we'll see) is that strategically placed deer fence or wire 7 foot fence and gates (along high deer traffic routes), in combination with water blaster gadgets (for those spots on the deer routes/entry points that can't be fenced, such as our creek) is highly effective. The incidence of eaten plants has dropped almost to zero since we did this. (The little that is being eaten (a bloom here or there), I am not sure is being done by deer; in the past the deer have gone way beyond eating just one or two flowers.)
Re your plant list, I can vouch that the deer leave the canna, salvia, and lantana alone. They don't eat the dahlias here, ditto
Argyranthemum, Scabiosa, Bidens, Heuchera and daffodils. I have found that while they may browse
Stachys and
Gaura early in the season, they mostly leave them alone.
Daylilies, though, are deer salad...both foliage and flower buds.
(Normally by this time of year, many of the daylilies that aren't individually fenced would be cropped down to just a few inches. Since I am not seeing any new cropping, that is another indication to me that we are now (mostly, if not entirely) keeping the deer out. But again, come deer rutting season, I may be proved wrong.)
