Questions about plant selection (which comes after all the design questions are addressed) do get a pretty mixed level of response here. The odd one will spark the interest of someone with the right zone experience, but some just don't. I always feel sorry to see it when they don't, but none of us (pro or hobbyist) is here to spend the day at the computer for free answering questions that don't interest us. And speaking strictly for myself, I find foundation planting probably the least interesting part of landscape design, perhaps because I find a lot of common foundation shrubs to be pretty anonymous green blobs. While I totally see their utility as foundation plantings, when it comes to picking what type of green blob to use, I pretty much check out. If I were landscaping a house like this, I'd personally go for much more exciting specimen shrubs, and most of my attention would be away from the foundation. Questions that involve second guessing a designer who is on site are also always awkward. Forum people - designers and hobbyists - can only work with the information the OP gives, while the onsite designer has a better sense of what is available, what the climate's like, what the site is like, what kind of gardener you are, and so on. I think a comment that might help the OP out here is that first, plant selection is a matter of personal taste above all, and if you want weigela and spirea, then you should go ahead with that. If you are paying a designer, however, you might as well use the advice they give when it is solid, which the proposal to put an evergreen in there certainly is. I don't see why you can't do all three shrubs. Second, plants can be moved and replaced, which is good because sometimes the only way you know if something will work is to put the things in the ground and give them a few years. But I think the ultimate take-away message for perhaps this OP and other potential posters - and I mean this in the most positive sense! - is that sometimes, when a decision is really difficult, the truth is that it just doesn't matter that much. Usually when it really matters, your preferences will exert themselves. When you can't decide, it often just doesn't matter that much. And in this case, where Weigela and Spirea are both fairly shapeless shrubs whose main claim to fame is a brief period of bloom and that will be bare sticks, green blobs, or lumps under the snow the rest of the time, it just doesn't matter that much. So don't torment yourself, give yourself permission to make mistakes since they're so easy to fix, do what feels right to you now, and move on to the rest of your property and other things in life. Questions about the yard as a whole might net more commentary than a question about foundation planting. Oh, and the other thing is, if you aren't receiving copies of responses by email, some people just won't bother responding. It happens far too often that we get "drive-by posters" who post their question, get some good thoughtful responses that take a lot of time to compose, and then never show up again. It's annoying enough even if responses are being emailed, but if they aren't, we never know whether our advice gets to the person who asked. Anyway, good luck! KarinL

Perhaps a type of Gerneriad as Aeschynanthus. Here is a link that might be useful: Aeschynanthus humilis

Schefflera arboricola 'Variegata', Variegated Dwarf Umbrella Plant. Joe

Definitely an elm, probably a large-growing one (most are). Fruits are generally needed to positively identify wild species, in addition to those are many intentional hybrids, both old and new - and not fully represented in keys and descriptions. You can't count on someone coming up with a 100% reliable species identification based on seeing this picture on the internet. If it happens to be a comparatively distinctive kind that somebody suggests as a possibility then there you are, otherwise even unusually thorough and dedicated tree expert Arthur Lee Jacobson of Seattle, WA (author of NORTH AMERICAN LANDSCAPE TREES, TREES OF SEATTLE, PURPLELEAF PLUMS) cannot give airtight names to every elm tree he has encountered. And this is includes his home territory, probably the last stronghold (alas, no longer) of elms susceptible to Dutch Elm Disease and pretty much no longer represented by full-sized specimens elsewhere.