I finally had to resort to caging my little escalonia starts because the deer were determined to make a bonsai garden out of them. I think they realized that some day these shrubs were going to grow up to become a deer fence, and they couldn’t tolerate that. After two years with out the fence they were pretty much the same size they were when I planted them. One month with the fence and they’ve grown from 4 inches hight to about 18 inches in height and diameter.