Dwarf conifers are a possibility - there are scads of varieties and many will never exceed 15' in a lifetime. Since they are evergreen, they look as good in winter as in summer, but they don't flower and they don't grow fast. Evergreen flowering shrubs are limited for your hardiness zone but you could look at rhododendrons or pieris. Some varieties are more sun tolerant than others but again, none growth particularly fast. There are any number of deciduous flowering shrubs that could work for you - lilac, forsythia, smokebush, rose of Sharon, chionanthus. These tend to grow more rapidly than either conifers or broadleaved evergreen shrubs but they are pretty much uniformly naked in winter :-) It is hard to find any flowering trees that wil remain below 15'....and even these generally tend to have naked trunks or seldom branch to the ground. Personally, I would opt to create a larger planting bed somewhere along the street side that is appropriate to your screening requirements. And I'd use a mix of plants - something tall and full to provide screening, something that provides seasonal bloom color and something to give evergreen/winter attraction. I know not everyone thinks this way but a tree (or two) or even a large shrub plunked down in the middle of the lawn looks to me extremely awkward and disconnected. Even less appropriate with a small garden such as yours - it comes across as a bit of an after thought instead of a planned landscape. I would much prefer to see a well thought out planting bed with maybe a larger tree to anchor it and smaller shrubs as an accompaniment.

you might consider areca palm. it is dense if planted closely together and the litter is limited to the occasional palm frond. I cut ours down because they were planted too close too the lanai but I have seen them used as shade producers.

Normally, I would repeat my mantra (all too familiar to regulars on this forum) : Syz. Aussie Southern Xanthostemon Chrysanthus Waterhousea Floribunda As I said : *normally*. Living in Rockhampton, I dont have to deal with too many frosts, so I'll have to hand you over to those members from your neck of the woods. We did have a lively discussion re. Pittosporum a short while ago, and I'm sure that there is a native (yes, Aussie native) species which will meet your needs. Good luck, Artie

Thanks everybody for the feed back! I've got about 200 yards of a fence line that is on the edge of some woods that I'd like to slowly pull out the invasive exotics and replace with better plants. Background singers are important--if everything is a star nothing is a star. I have much use for a nice background singer that can take the mic for just a song or two then be unobtrusive for the rest of the season!