Chinese fringe flower? (Guess which one! :P)

^^ Agree, and the other is most likely Dwarf Burford Holly (very popular with builders!).

Ah, yes! That's definitely Chinese fringe flower -- thank you!

There are some dwarf Burfords in that bed, but the one I'm actually trying to identify is in front of them, and isn't a holly. Sorry my photos are not good. The leaves on the "not-Burfords" (is that anything like a NOC?) are elongated and rounded, not spiky like the hollies.

NOB. 😄

ETA: Ugh, sorry you lost the Century plant!

All of my salvias, shrubs, etc look so bad, but I am seeing green poking up from the ground. :)

I went to Street View and took a screen shot. This is still not an even halfway decent picture, but is at least a "head shot" of the mystery plants. This was taken early on, and of course all the plantings are much more mature now -- but does this give any more clues?

I still can’t tell for sure, but the mounding habit reminds me of dwarf pittosporum (like ‘Wheeler’s’), another popular builder plant (but a good one). Total wild guess, though!

(I hope I’m wrong because they can die of freezes in our area, even ones not as severe as what we had this year.)

In case you wanted to download an app, I used PictureThis to identify a mystery tree that popped up in our front yard. No one could tell us what it might be. The app said it was a Persian/English walnut tree, of all things. The next year the tree gave fruit which the birds loved.

The app also identified another pop-up mystery tree (Mountain Ash) we had in the backyard. I had the app identify several plants that I knew the names of as a control and it came back with the correct names.

Hope you find out what it is!

OK - I think the second one may be a Wheeler's pittosporum, as Jinx so aptly suggests. It's weird, because the leaves on top are all brown and very obviously dead, but there are still green leaves on the "under canopy" (for lack of a better term). I swear, if they died, I may just replace them with yaupons. I know they've gained a reputation for being a bit of a bore, but they're the only thing that consistently looks fabulous - still, even after Snowvid - in my area.

Thank you all so much! Very helpful!

The green is very promising! I’ll bet they made it. :)

Pittosporum is a nice plant. The blooming period is short, but the blooms are so fragrant.

The second picture looked like Spirea to me.

But I bow to anyone whose name is nutsaboutplants., I love what I learn here.

Yes, I think they're also called mock orange, right?

Mock orange(Philadelphus) has white blooms and smells divine! I think the one with the blooms is lorapetulum. They do well here also. My princess spirea doesn't stay green year-round, so maybe that is a clue for you. Mine is just now starting to show new leaves.