Early spring flowering - Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko

Mid-late summer flowering - Hydrangea quercifolia, oakleaf hydrangea (all have great fall color but 'Ruby Slippers' is a nicely compact form with outstanding flower and leaf color).

Early spring flowering + beautiful fern-like foliage, decorative (sometimes glossy black) hips and fall color? Spinosissima roses. Some have brighter fall color than others. You might ask on the Spinosissima facebook group if you want to know which ones have the best fall color. Doorenbos Selection is particularly good for a pop of early spring color, has pretty hips, and does have good fall color for me.

Fothergilla has pretty (and sweet-scented) white blooms in early-to-mid spring, and then gorgeous fall color. It can handle anywhere from mostly shady to mostly sunny as long as you give it consistently moist soil, although the best fall color will come from full sun. 'Mt Airy' and 'Blue Shadow' are two commonly available cultivars that are more compact than species types.

Itea is another option with pretty fall color and beautiful (and nicely scented) blooms, but its bloom time is more mid-summer rather than late. It also tends sucker pretty readily, although this habit is diminished in some of the compact cultivars like 'Little Henry.' Like Fothergilla, mine do well in anywhere from full sun to part shade, but this is another shrub that thrives on moisture (and even soggy soil).

Viburnums can be pretty hit-or-miss for fall color, but some of the 'Burkwood' hybrid Viburnums actually have some very beautiful fall color, and fragrant white blooms in spring. 'Mohawk' is a cultivar that I know has a good reputation for fall color, although it's definitely a larger specimen than the two aforementioned options.

Several of the Amelanchiers (especially A. alnifolia) grow more like a shrub than a tree, and give you very pretty (but short-lived) blooms in early spring, and then glowing orange-red color in fall (along with the added bonus of delicious fruit in summer), but they also tend to be fairly prone to leaf-spot and rust diseases in my area .

Fothergilla is a favorite in my garden. Quite early spring flowers and one of the last to gain fall colors in my garden. Denser and with more foliage color and better flowers if it gets at least a half day sun.

It is really boring, even a bit untidy in summer, so I grow a summer blooming clematis where it grows up and over the Fothergilla.

There are several summer blooming deciduous Rhododendrons, some of which are scented, and which generally have fall foliage color. I have Parade which blooms in July. I don’t know if your soil is acidic enough for rhodies.

I would check out to see how panicled hydrangeas/Hydrangea paniculata look in your area in late summer and into fall. Here they start in July and are stunning until frost, but I know in many areas farther south than I am the flowers fade earlier and aren’t so nice looking late in the year.

Clethra are good backdrop shrubs. They have late summer flowers and really beautiful rich yellow autumn foliage.

I like the witchhazels for fall or winter/spring bloom/fragrance, though not much for fall color usually (yellows).

Thanks so much to everyone for the suggestions!! So many great ones! I was away for a few days and couldn’t respond until now. Thank you all for being so helpful!

gardengal, I love love love that deutzia! The fall color is perfect, being plummy rather than orange or red; the size is good to stick in multiple places; the flowers are so pretty and delicate. Thank you so much! Definitely on my list. I also have some oakleaf hydrangeas and plan on adding more. Love them, too!

K S, I hadn’t even contemplated a rose with fall color! That would be really neat. Those spinosissimas are lovely!

sah67, fothergilla would be a dream. I absolutely love it, but I don’t think there’s anyway I could provide be consistently moist conditions. We have terrible droughts in the summer, and while I can give supplemental watering, perpetual moisture is just something out of my capability right now. Too bad. I do have one Itea which seems to be able to dry out a bit as long as it is well established. I’ll definitely be adding more!

I had no idea the viburnums had such a good color. Those will be on my shortlist, as well! Thank you!

NHbabs, as I told sah67, I don’t think I can provide the right conditions for fothergilla, but wow! Your pictures are enough to make me really want to try. :) The shot with the clematis is wonderful. What a good idea! I could definitely utilize that elsewhere. And clethra is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for! I love the spiky flowers, it’s drought tolerant, and the yellow fall color is gorgeous! Thank you!

dbarron, I want to add witch hazels regardless of fall color. They are such a unique, early season show!

Oh. Haha. So much for believing brief descriptions online. :) Thank you for the clarification!

and those pictures of hamemalis are lovely!

I have a rose garden but one of my favourite shrubs is this American native, Ribes x odoratum, which used to be found on the banks of the Missouri River in N. Dakota, so it's very hardy.. maybe still there I wouldn't know..

It's in full bloom right now.. the flowers are scented of cloves, and in autumn you get nice colours on it too.. best left to grow into a big open shrub I find..

There's also Mahonia and spicebush if you can you a less dense shrub for the latter.

There are also ornamental grasses that look nice all year and send up flumes in the Fall.

As I said above, check out how Hydrangea paniculata does in your area. They are fairly drought resistant here for me, long blooming (I have one that blooms from early July until we get frost in October), range from 4’-15’ or taller, and many have fall color, though not stunning like the witch hazels and Fothergilla.

Also check out oak-leafed Hydrangeas (H. quercifolia) with spring blooms and beautiful fall color. I am not sure about their drought tolerance.

and here is my spicebush in autumn, the very bright yellow shrub behind the evergreen in the center of the photo. It also has lovely chartreuse haze of tiny spring flowers that bloom before the daffodils here, so would be good to extend the season earlier. I am not sure of its drought tolerance.

Love the Oakleaf Hydrangea, I has one peewee which the dogs ran through so now I have two! So it seems pretty strong to me.

my deutzia cherry blossom is in the ground and pretty much takes care of itself. In pots I have creme fraiche, Nikko and.... I can’t for the life of me remember the third. I’ll have to go look later. I do have to be careful with the ones in pots with regard to slugs. Last year they decimated them but they all appear to have bounced back this year since I’ve been on slug duty

How about a camellia? Are you too north for that? My japonica blooms before the daffodils, tulips, roses and peonies.

Flowering quince and forsythia are my go-tos for first blooms with the added bonus of bringing in some early twigs to bloom indoors. Some of the smaller willows may be fun for that too. There are some very pretty double quinces out there (pink, red, coral), they bloom on old wood. Have you considered the red and yellow twig dogwoods? New growth branches are brightly colored, pretty in winter, the leaves turn in fall (nothing too spectacular but still some color). And ditto on the camelias, they will get big eventually but respond to hard pruning; but check your local experts in case freezes end up destroying the flowers (always heartbreaking).

I'm a bit in the same place as you are, filling in holes. This year my lenten roses (not a bush but hey, they fill up the space) really kicked into gear and it was really fun to have those out along with some jonquils (little daffies that bloom earlier than the bigger ones), showing some color while things were still dreary. I also planted some crocuses this year for the first time, the yellow ones were the first ones to come up and they really early (along with the quince)... all those were about month and a half before the roses/peonies kicked in.

Another thing may be some blueberry bushes. They bloom early, cute pink bell-shaped flowers. The birds steal all the fruit but it's a pretty shrub and shows some color in fall.

One more: this probably works better for you as you are in a cooler zone, but look up ribes. These are goosberries--google "pink flowering currant." Super-early bloomer, nice pink dangling flower racemes. Here (7b) it gets too hot and these kinda die in the heat/humidity; you may have better luck. They are easy to propagate so if you get some (Annie's Annuals carries pink and also some yellow ones sometimes) you should be set. I'm growing one in shade, seems to be doing OK, bloomed this year and is growing, so I'm hoping that even if it struggles in the heat, it puts on a show in late winter/early spring.

Fruitcat, I love all of the suggestions! I just planted some red twig dogwood with variegated leaves. I’m really looking forward to that, although it will be a few years before it really fills in. Also just started working on a hellebore collection. Well, not quite a collection, but whatever I can get my hands on for the moment. I absolutely love them!

The suggestion of blueberries is an excellent one. I did notice last fall what wonderful color our blueberries in the fruit plot showed. And I agree, the flowers are so delicate and cute. Very pretty in a non-flashy way.

I had never seen the pink flowered current! What an unusual and lovely plant! We have a wild goose berries all over, but they have a very small, insignificant white flowers. Nothing like that!

7th dwarf form of red twig ossier. It's quite spready but very nice at all points in time. I have it planted in front of aronia another one you might consider. The fruit is delicious!