Thank you! I should have guessed it was a spirea, since I have some other spireas in my garden but never put 2 and 2 together :) Maybe I'll move it this fall to a sunnier spot. Marcia

It's the Double Bridal Wreath Spiraea! It is different than simply Bridal Wreath Spiraea in that the flowers have more petals. And interestingly, one site even mentioned, "Is not native, but has been used since pre-civil war times around houses in the south. A poor spirea that has a good name. Needs to be kept pruned to look good." This gives me an idea both how old the remains of the house might be that it is next to, and also how to try and get it blooming and healthy again! Thanks for the help, esh_ga! After about five years I finally know what the shrub is! :) Now I just need to figure out a way to transplant it without killing it... Here is a link that might be useful: More Info

Attached, this link shows a variety of Pieris. Other than the shapes of the flowers (they are more like a flattened rose), this looks very similar in how the flowers are arranged and hang in a delicate cluster. The stem and leaves are also very different. The stem is round and smooth on the plant I found, and the leaves are much smaller. Here is a link that might be useful:

Following up with the final determination, some good news and some bad: Starting with the good: There is in fact a simple and relatively foolproof way to ID the natives in my area and distinguish them from the invaders! The bad? I've got me several acres of heartache and pruning. I reached out to a botanist at the New England Wild Flower Society, in hopes of clarifying the 'should it stay or should it go' dilemma. After a brief scolding about how invasives shouldn't be ostracized, they didn't choose to come here, and how the tendency for knee-jerk reactions has led to destruction of entire ecosystems of native plants, etc etc.... it was confirmed that my specimens are indeed of the invasive variety. Excerpts of the discussion and the specimen photos below, for your reference: "Your plant is Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle), a non-native species that was first introduced to MA for horticulture (it is from Asia). It can be very invasive. The native species of honeysuckle have very different flowers (examine web images of Lonicera canadensis and Lonicera villosa for comparison)." [Note: Those are two of the native species for New England] "The pink flowers are often the hybrid between Lonicera morrowii and Lonicera tatarica (called Lonicera X bella). "Lonicera morrowii and its hybrids do have hollow stems. [...] Our two native species of honeysuckles found in forested habitats have solid stems." TL;DR: Hollow stems = invasives!