houzz is really messing with me on this post.. i have to send this as is.. before i lose it.... i will edit if i can after

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welcome .....

how big is your yard/garden .... this will dictate how much space you have for SHRUBS ... in this case.. flowering shrubs ....

if you can find and use the latin names... you will find sites with much better information on annual growth and potential size .... though i will say.. level of stink is usually not listed ....

i have had garden tours ... and had 6 peeps standing around a plant ... usually one or 2 smell nothing... one says its so intense they are going to vomit ... and the other .. wait how many are left ... and the other 3 shrug and say.. ohhh.. thats nice ...

but since it such a personal observation... you really arent going to find anyone who will commit to such a statistic ... on a website .... and i wouldnt believe them if they did ...

and besides that.. all the other cultural plant variables make a difference ... constant air movement.. humidity.. etc ... so the same plant might smell more intense in different places ...

not many plants stop growing at some magical size.. size estimates can be wildly off.. and the years go by ... e.g. i have lilacs that are 10 feet tall.. and wide .... do you have that kind of space ... and do note.. even dwarf versions.. can and will get big... it will just take longer ...

as an example of how i look to future size.. lets take the first on your list .. convert to latin.. and look at pix of how big they get ...

well lol.. the first attempt doesnt work all that well ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=Spice+Girl+Virbinium+(and%2For+Baby+Spice+Virbinium)&ia=web

so lets switch the name a bit.. and see if we can do better .. i would hope so ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Virbinium++Spice+Girl+&t=ffcm&ia=web

now lets flip to images

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Virbinium++Spice+Girl+&t=ffcm&ia=web

and you can scroll down and see that it can get as big as i mention my lilacs above ...

all shrubs can be properly pruned.. to restrict size.. with only one basic rule about when to prune.. so you dont cut off next years buds ... its not a big deal... the greater problem is usually what to do with what you cut off ... disposal ...

and finally ... i think i have a rather good sniffer .. and i think the best viburnum is mohawk ... and after 20 years.. mine is about a 6 foot tall by 5 foot wide rather upright plant ....

as you can see from the pix here ... it has a bit smaller future potential than spice girl .... or so it seems

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Virbinium+mohawk&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

if you want help.. give us some pix of your yard.. and we can try to help you ...

ken

ps: almost all flowering shrubs are full sun ... lack of full sun isnt going to kill a plant .. but it might be a bit more spindly.. if you get down to only a couple hours of sun per day ... depending on how bright it is otherwise .... if you could tell us more precisely what you mean by 'part shade'.. we can figure this out ...

​Thanks Ken! I have several areas to cover, so I have plenty of area for a few bushes, and I'm definitely looking at mature size estimates (I made that mistake at my last house, with not thinking about mature sizes of bushes and I was constantly fighting with a couple of huge red twig dogwoods).

The sunlight varies since I have several different areas, one is the north east side of my house, which gets morning sun and a couple of hours of afternoon sun in high summer. I also have a large area around my patio which is on the south side of my house but has some shade at different parts of the day from trees. I also have a good sized patch in sun at the back of our yard that I'm hoping to plant a larger lilac bush. 

I'd like to plant a couple Korean spice virbinium on the north east side. Hopefully it gets enough sun for flowers.

how far from the house.. can you plant on the north side ...

dont forget.. foundation plants are planted to hide the foundation... NOT ON THE FOUNDATION...

so if you can gain a few more feet away from the house .. you would gain a little more sun ... dusk and dawn sun is a plus.. but it usually lacks intensity to add much to the equation ....

dont want to share pix?? .. thats up to you ...

good luck

ken

ps: btw.. you ought to be able to find local chicago demonstration gardens.. and if you can wait to plant until fall ... you could probably do some in person auditions of flowering shrubs ... ive even done it at high end nurseries at bloom time ... though i would not transplant a plant in bloom.. and probably hold the pot over for fall planting .. if you buy later in spring .... [my usual cliche is.. just because you buy it.. doesnt mean its time to plant it]

pps: i am due east of you.. a couple hundred miles ....below ann arbor .. my weather is your weather for the most part.. i wouldnt buy that z6 claim either.. especially when investing in expensive plants ... i lost the zone pushing game too many times. and it cost me a lot of money .. go z5 or colder.. and it will be your friend for decades .. speaking of which.. did you see this morning.. miami is expecting 30 degrees soon .. yeah.. ma nature listens to government zone publications.. lol ... dont bet money on that ...

​I don't have many pictures because it's covered with snow. The main area that I'm planning on planting the virbiniums would be on the left side of the house. It's a pretty big area, though it's hard to tell from the pictures (the hostas and daylilies are gone). I have ordered a serviceberry that will be planted farther off a little from the garden itself (blue in the picture), then I was hoping to plant maybe a virbinium on either side (two different varieties so there's berries, and a smaller one on the side of the arborvitae bush).

im not even sure i would call that dappled sun part shade at all .. with clear blue sky above ... of course.. the shade tree may grow over the decades ... increasing lack of sun .. but well worry about that then ...

but im not sure i would limit my search based on part sun ...

also.. i would plant a few feet further out from the corner ... your straight as an arrow front bed could use a little spicing up ... so adding a bump out at the corner will not only give the plant more space.. it will make the front scape more visually pleasing ... and if that works for you.. move the other plants further down the property line .....

glad you posted the pic.. i was thinking urban chicago .... and this aint that ... big giant houses 6 feet apart.. and postage stamp backyard .. again.. this aint that.. and thank god for you ...

i see your gas meter back there ... call miss dig.. and learn where your utilities are.. store some pix of the markers.. and be careful when you dig a big hole for the new shrub ....

ken

ps: and your shrub will hide your hose caddy ...

pps: i dont see an arborvite ... and its a conifer.. not a bush or shrub .. may as well learn the terms ... give us a better pic of the plant hiding the gas meter.. if that is the one you are talking about .... if you care to ... of course ...

Thanks! I feel like I have a difficult time figuring out what type of sun it gets since it changes so dramatically throughout the year when the sun gets higher or lower in the sky. In the winter it gets very little sun. This picture is probably from mid May, but by September, the sun is getting a lot lower. so it's blocked by the house a lot of the time (though I guess fall and winter don't matter as much for plants, where the sun is).

Thanks Ken, I appreciate it!

I don‘t grow any of those specific cultivars, but IME both summersweet/Clethra and buttonbush/Cephalanthus may waft scent in huge colonies, but with just a bush or three you have to be quite near the shrub.

Common lilacs/Syringa and the spice Viburnums will waft better, even with just one plant.. plant close to where you want to be smelling them from for best results.

no experience with Abelia.

Native Lewisia/Mockorange is supposed to be very fragrant.

It's not a shrub, but my Actaea Racemosa is wonderfully fragrant and quite pretty.

Thanks Sigrid and NHBabs, that really helpful!

The only Lewisia I know of is a low semi succulent perennial. I can’t find a shrub of that name. Which plant are you thinking of Sigrid?

Eta I think I’ve found it. Philadelphus lewisii???

All the selections of Viburnum carlesii are going to be highly fragrant, and at a distance. In your northerly climate, you could also grow Viburnum farreri for much earlier fragrance, and maybe give V. x bodnantense 'Dawn' a go.

Ken mentioned V. x burkwoodii 'Mohawk', which is just one selection of the Burkwood Viburnum clan - which are all fragrant as well.

I don't know 'Ruby Anniversary', but Abelia mosanensis is highly fragrant and quite hardy.

You don't mention interest in small trees, but for a great summer smell you should give Magnolia virginiana a whirl. It's yard-filling lemon scent will make you wonder why you never planted it before.

I can't answer your question concerning those specific cultivars as I have not tried them. I agree about the viburnum carlesii, although the bloom season seems to be pretty short. Lilacs are great. By planting several different varieties, you can have blooms over a longer period of time. A later blooming one I can recommend is Syringa Meyeri 'Palibin'. This one starts blooming just as the common lilacs are fading and will get you about three weeks of spicy fragrance. They form a ball about 5 ft in diameter and in my experience will bloom even in partial shade.

And I have to add my favorite scented plant suggestion, though i is not a shrub. Nicotiana is in my garden a self-seeding annual which starts blooming in August and carries on until frost. Starting late afternoon the flowers start wafting a strong vanilla scent that carries into the house if we have fans running and fills the garden with a lovely scent.

Buddleja/butterfly bush! In recent years it's gotten a bad rep and I still don't understand why. Fabulous wafting fragrance.

Mine died last year to some sort of blight unfortunately, and I can't wait to get a new one! I love buddleja.

To my mind, Buddleja has two issues. The worst is that where it is happy it can escape into wild areas via seeding and replace native plants. The other is that there are many parts of the US where it doesn’t survive well due to too mich heat or cold or it doesn’t like the soil texture.

I grow some of the most fragrant Azelia in the world and boy do they whaff in the air..I have about 9. Everyone comments on them.

https://www.bluestoneperennials.com/AZIN.html

https://www.gardenia.net/guide/fragrant-azaleas-and-rhododendrons