There are more dark colored shrubs these days than before. There is Sambucus 'Black Lace' or 'Black Beauty' (the first one is the prettier in my opinion). Much slower growing than the usual elderberry and nice pink blooms (no seeds that I can tell). Physocarpus (Ninebark) is available in several choices: 'Summer Wine', 'Coppertina' and 'Centerglow' are the latest ones.

"Evergreen" is the tough one. I'm always hesitant to recommend non-natives, but "plum delight" (loropetalum chinense) comes in purple varieties. A lot of your native holly shrubs come in green. Mountain laurel is a great, slow-growing native that comes in various varieties w/diff't shades of green (light/dark/etc) and absolutely amazing blooms. With the exception of loropetalum, I can't think of anything else that fits the evergreen + not-green bill.

If you do a quick search in this forum for "laurel" you will probably pull up one of my recent posts to a nursery with an amazing selection of mountain laurels w/great pictures, great max height/width descriptions.

Oh I missed the evergreen part. You say it is "sunny", does that include afternoon? If so, then mountain laurel would not do well. Morning sun would be great.

Speaking of holly, there are some variegated hollies, but your height restriction would have to be enforced with pruning.

I do like the newer Abelia cultivars like 'Canyon Creek' and 'Rose Creek'. Apparently there is one called 'Confetti'. Abelia is usually evergreen in the Atlanta area.

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Confetti'

I echo the abelia suggestion. Several good varieties...lots of color. Love the heat.

Thanks. I had completely forgotten about abelia -- Canyon Creek would be about the right size. Love the color on the Sambucus Black Lace. I've got two areas with massed lorapetalums already, so looking for something different.

The area is naturally dryish, direct sun most of the day. We have a sprinkler system, if we're ever able to use it again with the watering restrictions. I've been hauling around 5 gallon buckets of gray water. I don't mind doing it to keep a beautiful plant happy, but I've been trying to keep all the new stuff drought-tolerant.

how about loropetalum (sp)

Ive seen that Confetti abelia locally as Abelia Kaleidoscope. I think its the same plant

There may be a variety of Nandina that would work there... they are very tough once established. Good luck!