Cold hardy gardenia. Chuck Hayes is a good choice, it has a double flower, and there are other cold hardies that would look nice. You are going to have to trim whatever you plant there, at least the gardenia will take a number of years til you have to trim it. And it's evergreen.

While I love the look of gardenias, their scent makes my head hurt. :-(

Any other suggestions?

Loropetalum is a beautiful shrub that has fringe-like flowers that appear during the spring and summer. Loropetalum commonly have purple/green foliage with pink fringe-like flowers (visually interesting), but some species are more green than purple and some have white flowers. It just depends on what you are looking for! Very cold hardy (I think most are tolerant to temperatures between 10 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit) and heat tolerant. You would have to keep it trimmed for sure, but it would look beautiful :)

As a professional landscape designer, I recommend a Gardenia 'Frostproof' for this space - it offers beautiful lush green foliage with a most wonderful fragrance flower.

Linda Greenberg, APLD

704-995-7173

linda@lglandscapes.net

According to your zone i agree loropetalum would be nice. Camellias may work for you as well.

One of my favorites is contorted filbert, Harry Lauder Walking Stick but I'm not certain how it would do in just dappled shade.

It's contorted branches in winter against a bit of snow background beg for photos.

One thing I had problems with is that it's leaves tend to attract Japanese Beetles.

Fortunately, you can clip off the chewed leaves and the shrub will grow new ones.

Here is a link to another thread with several suggestions for camellias that might work.

low growing camellias

Thank you all for your suggestions!