As far as raising the beds goes, there's a sewer drain in the corner of my yard - and I'll be leaving an area for water to drain into that between the beds. This is basically how it currently drains, and I'll continue to direct the water in that fashion. I am not going to worry about fastigate/columnar trees shading shrubs below them. My backyard is "full full full" sun and all shrubs will do just fine. I don't have many other options for trees and going with an Armstrong will be one of the narrowest choices I can make. The shade will do little to the shrubs below. The sun will still hit the shrubs from multiple directions as it crosses over my house in a diagonal path and will provide early in the day and late at night sun to any shrubs that may be shaded just a bit. I'm not too concerned about this. Thanks for the "Gold" maple option... that looks great! Now where to find these trees?! I've looked around at local nursery catalogs and can't even find the "standard" Armstrong maple... how do you folks go about hunting down good stock? I'm not into buying plants online; I want to see and inspect what I'm buying in person. If it helps, I'm in zip code 60108 if anybody has a helpful search... Thanks.

I'd be willing to bet that macrophyllas in zone 5 and in full sun probably did not fair very well. Macs in that climate will typically die back a lot, often back to the ground. And with remontant or new wood bloomers, without winter protection, even regular winter temps can prevent any early, old growth flowering so whatever new growth flowering may occur - never a guarantee - will appear late in the season. Any winter die back will mean the plants will stay quite short. They might not even grow to the height of the boxwoods! And full sun for macs is really not advised. They will require daily watering and even that may not be enough to keep them from wilting in late afternoon, the leaves scorching or browning and any flowers bleached out in color.

Dogwoods don't like to have the trunk exposed and - yes - Kousa in particular tends to be low forking - at least in the open (this is true of many other small- or comparatively small-growing kinds of trees also). Plus Kousa is a bark interest tree, when bark interest trees are grown with single trunks the bark effect is not as good. With that fence there the straight lines and full length or nearly full length repetition of some of the plants in these schemes kind of makes the whole look like a billboard. Your best bet might be to follow the paid for design - but using instead one each of four different kinds of trees, chosen to contrast or harmonize with the particular kinds of shrubs that are directly in front of them. Also the whole would look softer and more fully realized if flowering climbers (clematis, honeysuckle, roses...) were trained onto the fence. Again choosing ones that had some kind of specific visual interaction with the shrubs in front of them. Even as comparatively fancy as it is the fence - it is just as fence, after all - still does not have enough interest of its own for a lot of it to be visible. And it is being used in this arrangement as a backdrop. Plus the lattice like style of it seems as though intended to serve as a support for climbing plants. So it looks unfulfilled without anything growing on it.

Geraniums and bellflowers sound good! Some input on the shrubs you listed, all great choices. I don't think you can go wrong. Limelight hydrangea This easily gets 8 or even 10 ft tall for me, in heavy clay soil. It is stunning in the summer! Im in zone 5 and they are just starting to bud out. Each spring, I have to cut them back, to remove the dead flower heads and to reduce height. Otherwise, they get monstrously huge. This is getting to be quite a big chore now though. I also have some other paniculata hydrangeas and White Diamond is my favorite so far. It doesn't get as tall as Limelight, but is still 6-7 feet tall and currently flowering. I do not have to cut it back as much and the flowers have an "airy" look to them. Deer sometimes nibble my hydrangeas and they can end up with a bit of an odd shape because deer will eat the lower branches a bit. I was thinking that for some spots I wish I had planted some of the smaller types. I have a ninebark...I think its Summer Wine. It is about 4-5 ft tall but quite a large diameter, slowly getting larger each year. It slowly suckers. I have never pruned or shaped it. Has a naturally nice shape and all around seems like a sturdy shrub. Viburnum: I love snowball viburnum. They are covered in white fluffballs early spring. I look forward to them each year and their exuberance and flowery abundance is one of my favorite spring time views. The flowers do not last long and the rest of the year the shrub is kind of ... just there, but the spring flowers are so worth it to me. There are so many viburnums available and they all have been solid shrubs for me with lots of them having summer berries for the birds. I have a Blue Muffin now about 8 ft tall after 5 years. I only prune to shape or remove dead branches, and that is very little. Weigela: I was just considering removing some spirea and putting in weigela instead. The spirea needs to be cut back each year to stay in good shape whereas weigela seems to require less (or even no) pruning. They do best with consistent watering, especially first couple of years. They took a while to really settle in it seems. Mine occasionally get damaged by four lined plant bug. So many to choose from too. I think the largest I have is only about 4 ft tall though. Not sure on taller varieties. I have some small blue toned fothergilla and they were slow to get established but are now good solid shrubs in my partially shaded area. The leaves and shrub shape are very appealing year round on this shrub. Even in winter I think it looks great. One of the few deciduous shrubs I can say that about. Deer sometimes nibble on them too. If you happen to have any wooden blocks (like kids play with), you can draw a simple map of the garden area, and then place blocks to mimic possible shrub placement. I have found the 3d placement helps me visualize it much better than simple 2d drawings. Also, once you get the shrubs/plants, you can spend some time moving them around in their containers in potential garden spots. Best of luck on your shrub border. :)