hey liz.. royal oak eh?? [from your members page] .. grew up in livonia... and bought my first house there ... first.. refer to the link .... for a suggestion as how to proceed ... linds ... did it right.. by catching us.. when we were bored out of our minds.. prior to the weather breaking ... note the pix we requested.. as well as having her define what her goals were ... and they did not end up being what she started with ... and its your use of common terms.. that is confusing you .. and us.. as to where to go with this ... e.g... evergreens... well.. that covers a wide range of things ... i THINK you are talking about conifers ... if you are.. that is where linds started .... and that is usually the backbones of the front of ones house ... but there are many other plants that are .. in essence.. evergreen ... so you need to define what you are talking about ... and technically.. conifers are NOT shrubs.. though i also called them such for decades .... but it is not helpful in defining where we want to go .... BTW .. your link doesnt work.. and that pic is not going to be helpful to anyone defining a plan ... and take a walk some evening.. and snap a pic or two.. of what other peeps have done with the front of their houses.. to help you define what you like.. and give us some guidance as to where you want to go ... you are spot on with the foundation ... when i had my first house in livonia.. i learned that 3 feet AT THE FOUNDATION .. should be left blank ... so i could get a ladder in there.. to do gutters.. paint.. xmas lights.. window washing.. etc ... and if you agree with that.. then you should 'see' that your bed is horribly out of configuration .... lol .. i just glanced up.. and i see the neighbor still has the ugly old improperly planted conifer .... and the root of your problem might be this forum.. but you never know ...... the conifer forum is much more active.. than the shrub forum.. and not every one of the peeps there.. come thru here ... so if this post dwindles.. try over there ... my best suggestion ... is to define and build some great beds.. for planting in fall .. the next proper season for planting conifers .. and trees.. as i doubt you can properly build those beds in time ... you simply should not plant such.. in the heat of summer ... but .... once you define the beds.. and add some of your annuals.. and perennials.. then we can get the backbones in place in fall ... of my 600 conifers.. about half came in the mail ... and that is how you get truly unique things.. rather than JUST what the bigboxstore offers ... well.. that and a budget.. lol .. of course .. as compared to me in adrian mi ... you have some great large upscale nurseries in the area including bordines .. english gardens.. etc ... so.. get us some better pix.. that perhaps we can photoshop ... and lets try to find some words that explain where you want to go .. oh.. i would expand that bed to about 10 feet from the house.. which would make it only 7 feet deep to work with .. it would NOT be straight across.. and we would have to figure out how to deal with what i will guess is an arcing walkway .... [any chance you want to replace that with brick as a part of the process] ... and i would insure.. that some part of the plants introduce a vertical element.. as compared to your 1950's metro detroit ranch ... good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

American Holly is native, evergreen, and tolerates salt and full sun. It grows rather slowly but eventually can become a medium-sized tree. Bayberry isn't evergreen. Wax Myrtle, which is related but more southern in distribution, is evergreen. Wax Myrtle gets pretty large, as do most of the shrubs if not pruned for size. Altantic White Cedar, arborvitae, and Red Cedar are all upright evergreens that are commonly seen as shrubs. They eventually get pretty large, but grow rather slowly. Eastern Hemlock is often planted as a foundation plant or hedge. It of course grows very large but can apparently be sheared to a smaller size for many years. Depending on how you define native you might also include White Spruce (Picea glauca), and more to the point the dwarf cultivar you see all the time in gardens and planters. Not sure how these "Dwarf Alberta Spruce" tolerate salt, but they are very tolerant of drought and poor soils. I think almost any shrub will do fine in full sun if soil conditions are good. The only time I'd expect trouble with full sun is when soil conditions are marginal.

Thank you both. I had it suspected as a newer compact Pieris like 'Cupido', there are obviously many cultivars these days, I will forward these IDs to the person who sent me the photo.

Assuming your landscaper is local and has a good reputation/lots of experience, go with their suggestions. Local info is always going to be the most relevant......zone info is not very specific and fails to take in a lot of other considerations.