It's strange, but I have every shrub you are referring to, so I hope my experience with these shrubs is helpful. I have a PeeGee Hydrangea tree, it's about 5 years old, and it is gorgeous. However, because the blooms are so full and heavy, after getting rained on, most of the flowers will droop down. There are ways to prune the tree so that the branches get stronger, which I have been doing, but I am not seeing much improvement. For more information you should look at the Hydrangea forum. I also have 2 other types of hydrangea trees: a Pink Diamond (also has beautiful and large blooms, but they are less dense, so they are lighter and they do not droop after rain, and the white blooms turn a pretty pink as they age), and a Limelight hydrangea (these are more similar to PeeGees than the Pink Diamond, but they seem to be less prone to drooping.) My PeeGee and my Pink Diamond are on the north side of my house (zone 5, Michigan), and they do very well there. I wonder if your southern exposure will be too much sun for them. My Limelight is on the south side of my house and it is doing well there. And I've read that Limelights do well in part to full sun. I've seen snowball viburnum standards, and I think they are gorgeous! I know they do well in full sun because I have a bush in full sun and it's growing nicely. I also have a Merril magnolia (which I think is similar to Stella) on the south side of my house. It produces fragrant white, daisy-like blooms in early spring. It is not a fast grower, and it seems like it would be easy to keep it pruned to the size you want. However, this shrub, like other magnolias only stands out in the landscape in early spring, after that, it is kind of boring. So, I think if you want something eye-catching, for a long period of time, the best choice for you would be a Limelight hydrangea tree. The flowers last from early summer through fall, they don't tend to droop, they are easy to prune, they like full sun, and the flowers start out a beautiful greenish-white, then they turn all green. You may want to look at the Hydrangea forum, it includes alot of information about the various types of hydrangeas.

I really like the wax myrtle, and think I'll try one just to the left of the pines. That area is in full sun for 8 hours or more a day. I love wildlife in the garden and do not mind berries. Also thinking of two Arborvitae Smaragd in the spaces between the three pine trees. I'll research the suggestions for more shade tolerant trees and shrubs. As far as the roots go, guess what we did all Sunday! We had good rain the day before and the ground was soaked. My husband used an axe and I used a saw. Severed thick roots as close to the trunk as we could and then pulled away from the trunk and snipped with loppers as we went. Most came up easily enough, but it was still backbreaking work. The stump grinder came yesterday and ground the stump and about a foot of root clumps right next to the stump. Saved us a lot of money by removing most roots ourselves.

Wow, thanks for the recommendations to all of you. I do like the idea of Ribes, it has flowers similar to fuschia and the birds will love it. Many of your other recommendations I planted at my parents' home during the last few years, so I can easily make cuttings. I might have to grow some of those full sun species in pots up on our balcony where some spots get full sun year round. Carpenteria may be nice, too. Some white to brighten up the shady spot. Calycanthus is a nice flower morphology, and I love the fragrance of it. Yerba Buena would be a nice groundcover under the trees by the street, and again, I like that it has fragrance. It will like the fog in Summer, too. Phacelia campanularia is one of my favorite flowers, the blue color is amazing. I only worry about the kids in the neighborhood touching it, it gave me a pretty bad dematitis a few months ago when I collected seeds from them. I've been trying to estimate how much sun that area will get in the peak of summer, in June. I think one strip will be filtered/dappled shade, and half of one will be in direct sunlight for a few hours when the sun is highest in the sky. The Las Pilitas site is basically my encyclopedia for getting info about plants, especially their hummingbird and butterfly plant lists. That, google image searches and the online Jepson manual. And even though they aren't natives, I've always wanted to grow Hellebores, so maybe that will go in somewhere too. Thanks again, and happy gardening.

bahia - thank you for your many wonderful suggestions, I will research all of them. The 'Charles Grimaldi' is beautiful and just the size I'm looking for. I might limb it up even more to form a more umbrella-like canopy for a more see-through structure. I'm also considering a large Schefflera tree like the one we have in a similar spot elsewhere in our backyard. It doesn't flower (at least not yet). It did have some black leaves when our winter temps dipped to 26 degrees one year, but recovered nicely.