There are yellow leaved Spireas that should stay that low and they are pretty adaptable.

Thanks Maryl for the follow-up.

Is there any form of euonymus (sp?) that has a yellow varigation to it that is bushy and round, won't get over 4' and is not vase shaped?

Some commonly found yellow-variegated versions of Euonymus are:
Euonymus japonicus "Aureo-marginata" aka Gold-edged Euonymus
Euonymus japonicus "Aureo-variegata" aka Gold-Spot Euonymus

I'm not sure of their ultimate height. I've seen them in the 2' to 5' range, though. The ones I had at our previous home never got above 3', but they had quite a lot of shade which may have slowed their growth.

But you know that all eunoymus have a problem (sometimes a major one) with scale, don't you?

If you are interested in other plants that are variegated or have golden foliage, here's a few:

Golden Privet "Aureum" (Ligustrum ovalifolium) -- may get too big

Golden Mock Orange (Philadelphus coronarius 'Aurea')

Golden Barberry (Berberis aurea)

Goldflame Spirea (Spirea bumaldi 'Goldflame')

Goldmound Spirea (Spirea bumaldi 'Goldmound')

Spirea japonica 'Magic Carpet' (only 15" - 24" in height though, with an 18" to 24" spread, chartreuse to golden leaves)

Thuja occidentalis "Rheingold" 3' high x 2' wide

Juniperus chinensis 'Gold Coast' or 'Old Gold'

Variegated English Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens 'Argenteo-variegata')

Dawn

Dawn,
Thanks for the suggestions...

I have been reading about the scale problem on eunoymus. I don't think I want to go down that road. I'll take a look at some of the other suggestions you made.
Rodney

Rodney,

You know, I think you are making a wise decision. The crazy thing about scale is that it will hit one landscape on a street and none of the others. So I am not sure how widespread it is, but if your landscape is the one it hits...well, that's it for those plants. You can fight scale but I don't think you can beat it.

Happy Planting!

Dawn

Scale has eliminated anything like Euonymous from my list of suitible shrubs to anyone just starting out. I still have some Euonymous in my garden, and they all have scale to some degree, just not enough to kill them so far. I've tried the dormant oil spray, the Malathion spray, and frankly there's too many good bugs that may be eliminated trying to kill scale on Euonymous to bother with planting it. There is the relatively new Bayer Tree and Shrub insect control which we are using to try and control scale on a fully grown tree, but to be quite frank, I can't say if it's working or if it's not after 2 years use.......Spireas are a good carefree shrub in my area, Barberry's are nice, but they do have thorns. Most golden leafed evergreens will eventually grow taller then what you want.

I have a couple of creeping euonymous that are wonderfully, quite bright yellow, and I'm letting them spread into a bed under a small golden chain tree. They don't form a rounded bush, but they get about 2-2.5 feet tall. V3ery hardy and they look great up against a dwarf barberry, nice contrast.

There is another shrub called Caryopteris 'Worcester's Gold'. Caryopteris does very well in Oklahoma. It is well-mannered, grows quickly, drought and heat tolerant, easy to prune. It dies back in winter, but comes back in spring. It gets 2-3' tall. Leaves are gold and blooms are a bright blue.

Susan