Spireas never produce trumpet shaped flowers. Regarding the expanding of Linnaea Most botanists resisted placing other species in the genus, treating Linnaea as a monotypic genus. However, molecular phylogenetic studies from 2001 onwards showed that a number of genera were related to Linnaea (the "Linnaea clade"), although one of them, Abelia, was not monophyletic. In 2013, to maintain monophyletic genera, Maarten Christenhusz proposed merging Abelia (excluding section Zabelia), Diabelia, Dipelta, Kolkwitzia and Vesalea into Linnaea.[1] This proposal has been adopted by some secondary sources, including Plants of the World Online.[2][3] However, other sources prefer to maintain the segregation of Linnaeoideae into the traditional genera on grounds of morphology, biogeography and nomenclatural simplicity.[4][5][6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linnaea

Wire deer netting + peeler poles + staples is relatively inexpensive, buying shrubs that are then spoiled and buying repellent over and over out indefinitely into the future seems pretty likely to match and then exceed the cost of such fencing. Even when the fencing is used to enclose a fairly large area. For instance some years ago it cost about $300 to deer fence an entire mail order nursery growing area I was helping with at the time. In my area a body can easily spend $300 on one or two trips to a garden center to buy shrubs etc. And supposedly deer resistant plants can turn out not to be - deer sample plants and may work on them for a bit before apparently deciding they don't like them. And what they go for varies from one site to the next, with items that are novel to those particular deer being targeted. So that for instance an 'Edward Goucher' abelia I planted years ago on a friend's country property has been kept nibbled back ever since - so much for abelias being predictably and reliably deer resistant.

Definitely, and a female individual at that. If there is a male flowered plant around, there should be plenty of fruit forming by fall.

I'm not sure Geranium macrorrhizum would thrive there as it needs sunlight, but it would look nice there. I would leave the Rhody alone and plant a shade loving groundcover around it; Vinca minor would be a carefree choice. You could also plant a variety of shade plants, or simply fill in the area with more hosta. Removing the lower limbs and dead limbs from the Rhody would make it look better, IMO.