Hydrangea paniculata 'Little Quick Fire' should fit your requirements. I grow some of the larger H. paniculatas and they are fine in full sun and windy conditions. I particularly like the early bloom of regular 'Quick Fire' as compared to most paniculatas, and 'Little Quick Fire' is supposed to have similar early bloom. The blossoms start white and gradually turn to pink after several weeks. There is also H. paniculata 'Little Lime' that starts blooming later. Both are fully hardy for your area. You could look at Ninebark (AKA Physocarpus) 'Tiny Wine', though it may be a bit large for your site. Depending how good your snow is for insulation, I have done well with Caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue' which I think is one of the hardier Caryopteris, but it would appreciate good snow protection. Rhododendron 'Checkmate', a small version of PJM Rhododendron does well for me in a fair amount of sun. You also might look into larger perennials like some of the smaller Baptisias, Caryopteris divaricata 'Snow Fairy',

This is great! I will look them all up and see what they are. Hopefully, a local nursery can help locate some of these for me!

Just so you know, I have acid soil, so some of my suggestions will do best with acid soil. I also thought of half-high blueberries which also need acid soil, but have spring flowers, summer fruit, and bright red fall color. There are several shorter spireas, though I am not hugely fond of most spirea. Fothergilla is another nice shrub, and my F. 'Mt. Airy' at something like 10 years is under 4', though I don't know if it will get taller. It has nice spring flowers, not much going on in the summer, but stunning fall color that is the last shrub in my garden to hold color.

Other small shrubs that might work for you are Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). long bloom time, good winter interest; rugosa rose 'Fru Dagmar, nice, pink, single blooms that generally repeats in late summer plus fabulous fall color., Spirea Galen (Double Play Artist), one of the better spireas.

For a tough, yet beautiful, small shrub you should take a look at the native Aronia melanocarpa. Flowers in spring, glossy foliage in summer, and excellent color in fall. Will grow in just about any soil and the berries are a excellent late-winter emergency food for the birds.

Aronia arbutifolia 'Brilliantissima' is another to consider.

Are deer a problem? Very important, since some of the shrubs mentioned are quite appealing to them.

Second the Aronia tip. those are great shrubs, and if you're adventurous, you can eat the fruit, although eating quality varies greatly between cultivars.

+oM

Tom,

Funny- we have a couple rows of Iroquois Beauty Chokeberry at a commercial place we maintain. Every year I see these big plump berries and have to try one only to be reminded how terrible they are! I have yet to eat one fresh that I find appetizing.

Here our groupings were torn to shreds by the Japanese Beetles three years in a row and now the last two years they haven't touched them. Can never figure them out!

Yes, I think cultivars suitable for human consumption are not necessarily the ones we use in the landscape. Wonder how the birds do it sometimes!

Sucks about Jap. beetle. Believe it or not, we're just starting to be bothered by that pest here. When not plagued by this or other pests, Aronia has some of the nicest fall color out there in shrubland. Funny story: We were doing a large stream restoration in a heavily wooded ravine that was getting washed out by peak flows due to urbanization of its watershed. The contractor who shall remain nameless was, shall we say, not very detail-oriented. The gal that took the project over after the initial rep got fired-yes, things were going that well-continually said "chokeberry" when we would be looking at the construction drawings, even though the plan specified choke cherry. I must have corrected her 6 or 8 different times, always saying, "Now *****, I like chokeberry just fine, and it is a native shrub around here, but that plan calls for choke cherry". Well, she would nod her head and seemed to understand what I was saying, but then one day, along with lots of other nursery stock, they shipped us 368 chokeberries! Given this was just one of numerous problems we were having with this outfit, I said go ahead and plant the chokeberries and we'll see if it passes muster later. Luckily, the DNR guy that had to sign off on our project was ok with that species, and in fact, from a wildlife standpoint, it offers much the same set of benefits as the wild cherry would have. I like the Aronia better, as far as that goes.

+oM