another option I am considering is mock orange

mock orange and miss kim will both exceed 4' by a LOT and will need a lo of pruning to keep them at the right size.

Lilac, azalea and mock orange all grow to over 10ft tall. They also only bloom for about 2 weeks in the spring and are not interesting for the rest of the year.

Potentilia stays under 4ft and has yellow flowers from June til frost. Goldflame spirea grows to 3ft with yellow foliage in the spring (turns green), pink flowers in July and yellow-orange fall colour.

Your other option is to plant a perennial bed as there are many choices under 4ft. For low care, try black eyed susans, coreopsis or purple coneflowers which will bloom from mid July to frost. Plant some bulbs like tulips and daffodils to provide colour in the spring and early summer.

I thought little miss kim were pretty small bushes? Can they be maintained by pruning or is it a losing battle?

Thanks for the recommendation on potentila! I've never seen that before - really pretty! Are the flowers fragrant?

Might want to see what the ugly evergreen does this spring; it might be a great shrub that just needs some pruning, and it might surprise you and be beautiful in bloom.

There are Rhododendrons that grow wider and tall like Boule de Neige, Dora amateis and the Yak hybrids. Thses could easily be maintained to four feet and would give winter interest.

Little Kim gets 6-7 feet tall. The other problem with lilac is that, although beautiful in bloom, the bloom period is short and they are not much to look at for the rest of the year.

Potentilia is not fragrant, but do bloom profusely. You could underplant shrubs with fragrant flowers like dianthus or flowers with scented leaves like scented geranium.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fragrant perennials

There are Azaleas which will grow only 2 feet and and some which grow only 4 feet tall.

I have some 'Red Ruffle' azaleas' which do well with full morning shade and dapple afternoon shade and which are supposed to spread about 3 feet with a height of 2-4 feet depending on how many years they have been planted. Currently mine have been planted for three growing seasons and are only one foot tall but nicely spreading.

There are so many azalea cultivars sold which you can even group by different contrasting leaf and flower colors and whose bloom time is staggered from early, mid, and late in each month. Also cultvars begin blooming here as early as March and various others begin blooming some time over each month after that through June.

How much sun do you get? Any exposure that would make potentilla happy would leave broadleafed evergreens (azaleas, rhodies) dying of heat stroke. They need shade from the hottest sun of the day.

Another followup question. 8 feet wide--I assume you mean the width of the window plus some. How deep? So your whole bed is 8 by ?

I second laceyvail's question. Sun makes all the difference.

One thing to think about is if your bed is deep you can have 2 or 3 layers of shrubs each of which does something different.

Fothergilla gardenii stays small, under 3' tall, has fragrant flowers in Spring and great fall color. Fothergilla takes sun to part shade. One of the dwarf Weigelas might be good in combo, as they bloom in summer.

You didn't say what exposure the front is-it will make a difference. One option that noone has mentioned yet is camellias-evergreen & flowering, but they will do better w/ a protected location. The Ackerman varieties be best in this region & I think you can see alot of them at the Natl. Arboretum? (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). I have 3 Winter's Star in my front bed, planted 2 years ago, they're kind of sprawling, but much nicer than the Japanese hollies I dug out. I also have another Winter's Star & a Snowflurry in the back, they've both made it through 2 winters, while some of the other camellias bit the dust (partly my fault, planted under pines, western exposure, w/ no protection from the wind).

I have 2 weigelas, 'Wine & Roses', in the front also, they only just started to leaf out. They look like dead, twiggy lumps during the winter, I'm replacing them this year with either loropetalum or Kleims hardy gardenias.

my house faces south and the front gets a lot of sunlight.

I think azaleas and rhodies are out of the question for you with a southern exposure in Virginia. Perhaps you should visit a good local nursery, look at some shrubs and speak with a knowledgeable person.

We still don't know how deep your bed is. Wide, yes, 8 feet. But depth?

You might consider for its fragrance, year-round interest, and flowers:
Daphne 'Summer Ice'.

Dax

Well, with a lot of sun, you might consider shrub roses. Not the fussy things that produce a few long stemmed roses and have foliage so sickly that it needs an intensive care unit.

Rather in my yard I have lots of 3 foot roses with generally attractive foliage that produce sprays of roses from about June through December (depending on the hard frost). A common baby pink one is The Fairy. I have several sports of tht Fairy called Crystal Fairy and my foundation bed blooms white all summer and fall. Sea Foam is also white. (These are thorny) There are many newer shrub roses, most under 4 feet. They usually have good foliage and are free flowering.

Merrifield Gardens in your area probably will carry many varieties of shrub roses.

Spring bulbs for the first few months and roses for the rest of the growing year. It could be a plan.

Th current issue of Horticulture Magazine has an article on low maintenance roses

Here is a link that might be useful: Low Maintenance Roses

From CT morning sun,low maintenance shrubs...I like hydrangeas and boxwood, what would be good for my front yard up against my foundation, windows in the front so need something that will not be to tall...Thanks