I grow most of my shrubs in more or less that format. They may not all perform in your area but they are leatherleaf viburnum (V. rhytidophyllum), Hydrangea aspera, Philadelphus, elderberry (Sambucus nigra 'Guincho Purple'), Disanthus cercidiphyllum, and one that naturally grows in this shape, Leycesteria formosana. And, for that matter, some of my rhododendrons. The primary criterion for success with this form, it seems to me, is that the shrub has to not sprout too aggressively from the base once it has relatively mature stems. This rules out grafted shrubs, or at least, it does if you don't always want to be pruning suckers from the base. In fact my contorted filbert (Corylus avellana 'Harry Lauder's Walking Stick') would also qualify, and Hamamelis cultivars such as 'Diane' could do so, but there are always suckers. And even on others, you have to ruthlessly remove new growth from the base unless you want one to grow into a replacement stem - and I do prune out old stems from time to time. I also failed to achieve this form with Vitex, because mine sprouted aggressively and very laterally from the base - but that could have been because we cut it back severely at one point. I'm just working on converting it to a single stem tree form. The Vitex's history actually brings me to another criterion for success, which is that the reason we cut it back hard was that we were moving it AWAY from the house wall where it WOULD NOT grow upright - it leaned so far out that the adjacent patio became useless. It, and all my deciduous shrubs, now are planted away from structures and fences so that they get light from all sides, and they grow nice and straight )although if shaded by each other or other trees they also grow their bulk toward the sun). Next to a structure or wall, any deciduous shrub will lean away. If the garage is fairly low and the plant can get light once it grows above it, you can train it upright until it gets there. If the garage is taller and you can determinedly tie to the garage even as the plant grows to its full height, then of course you can grow whatever you want there - just don't expect it to happen naturally. I finally had to ask on another forum why conifers don't seem to have this problem... turns out conifers will grow upright even next to walls because they grow against gravity rather than toward light. Deciduous shrubs, on the other hand, grow toward light. Geotropic vs. phototropic, I think it was. Broadleaf evergreen shrubs, like rhodos and the Viburnum, seem to have some mix of the two properties, but don't quote me on that. I base this on noting how they grow in one-sided light conditions. Karin L PS another good candidate might be Hibiscus syriacus.

Depends on what you want. I happen to LOVE Amelanchier, but it is no way as showy with the flower display of the crepe/crape? myrtle. On the other hand, Amelanchier looks great in the fall and has cool berries that attract birds, so maybe a little more "3 season" interest. In my experience, the best thing to do when trying to decide about plant selection is to think about the plant and how it will perform all year around, so take into account not only it's showy features but its winter silhouette, form, maintenance, etc. I love both Amelanchier and Crape Myrtle. The myrtle has a long, showy bloom season but is ho hum the rest of the time. Amelanchier is nice most of the time, nothing spectacular at any particular time, but nice overall. To me the virbirnum are a total bore in the winter and when not in bloom or berry, but nice when in bloom and again in fall with foliage and berries. So it depends on how this plant will fit in with whatever else is going on in your garden.

Dwarf conifers are a possibility - there are scads of varieties and many will never exceed 15' in a lifetime. Since they are evergreen, they look as good in winter as in summer, but they don't flower and they don't grow fast. Evergreen flowering shrubs are limited for your hardiness zone but you could look at rhododendrons or pieris. Some varieties are more sun tolerant than others but again, none growth particularly fast. There are any number of deciduous flowering shrubs that could work for you - lilac, forsythia, smokebush, rose of Sharon, chionanthus. These tend to grow more rapidly than either conifers or broadleaved evergreen shrubs but they are pretty much uniformly naked in winter :-) It is hard to find any flowering trees that wil remain below 15'....and even these generally tend to have naked trunks or seldom branch to the ground. Personally, I would opt to create a larger planting bed somewhere along the street side that is appropriate to your screening requirements. And I'd use a mix of plants - something tall and full to provide screening, something that provides seasonal bloom color and something to give evergreen/winter attraction. I know not everyone thinks this way but a tree (or two) or even a large shrub plunked down in the middle of the lawn looks to me extremely awkward and disconnected. Even less appropriate with a small garden such as yours - it comes across as a bit of an after thought instead of a planned landscape. I would much prefer to see a well thought out planting bed with maybe a larger tree to anchor it and smaller shrubs as an accompaniment.

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.