if you want plant ideas.. you have to tell us where you are.. big city name.. zone is min winter temp predicted.. it tells us nothing ....

that pic looks vaguely familiar... did you post this previously?? .. or maybe a different forum??

ken

Agree with ken.

Those azaleas get tall enough over time- assuming you mean massing at about stair height and not something tall and sticking up. I don’t know about zone 6 but grow in zone 7.

I love azaleas of all types because “ my” deer don’t eat them and because I can grow early, mid- and late season bloomers and types with different heights.

I think Conversation Piece is a later bloomer ( here either that or something similar blooms in May after most other spring bloomers are long gone). But still it’s just a few weeks and green shrub rest of year.

IF your site is actually good for azaleas and not too harsh winters, you could think about a few different azalea families including some shortest re-bloomers - thogh the need a bit more sun.

I share your distaste of holly, and, after ripping some out this spring whose roots were mammoth monsters, have vowed to never ever plant one in my whole life.

I think azaleas are nice enough, but they are *everywhere* in my area. Plus they drop their leaves for the winter. Since your hydrangeas don't keep their leaves for the winter, I would be looking for something to plant next to your stairs that did.

I just put some new plants in and settled on kaleidescope abelias. They're supposed to top out at 2-4 feet tall. They produce little white flowers, but the interest seems to be more in the color-changing leaves that stay through the winter.

I was also looking at small varieties of blooming hawthorns, but that might need more sun than you get. On the plus side they are evergreen.

I saw a dwarf rhododendron last week at my local nursery called purple gem - only gets to be about 2 to 3 feet tall and wide. Never heard of one that small! But rhododendrons have similar flowers to azaleas and the purple gem is evergreen. It likes part sun/shade but only flowers late spring.

** My apologies, I thought you were looking for something a little shorter. I see now you're going for around 5 feet.

Asters and peonies are not shrubs, they're perennials. I need small shrub ideas for my house, too, so Interested in what suggestions you get

Thank you both for your feedback. Yes, I did post this in a different forum, but I'm learning that a more specific, targeted approach to getting help is better than "help me plan my entire garden" in a single post.

I'm in northern NJ - this winter had virtually no snow and temps hardly ever go below 20F.

I'm okay with the azaleas not having blooms for the majority of the year, but was more concerned about how it would look against the stairs - would it be tall enough? We previously had something like an Alberta Spruce on one side and some kind of shrub on the other, but neither were doing well and didn't look very good. We were hoping to replace them with something nice, but wasn't sure which direction would be best.

I was thinking they should be about five feet high. I believe that will draw attention to the center of the house in a uniform way, then fill in the remaining available spaces with Asters or maybe a Weiga shrub or something hearty that needs only partial sun.

It is almost impossible to provide reasonable plant suggestions if we have no idea where you live. Zone 6 means nothing other than possible winter cold tolerance but a lot more issues come into play when considering what plants might be suitable to your specific location. Name of closest large city, please!!

Azaleas come in both deciduous and evergreen forms. Evergreen forms - like 'Conversation Piece' - are not as cold hardy as the deciduous types and zone 6 is definitely on the lower cusp for any of these. Also abelias are considered to be only semi-evergreen and will drop a significant amount of their foliage over winter in colder zones....and again, zone 6 is pushing it for these as well.

I am also unaware of any evergreen forms of hawthorn, Crataegus species. And while a few native species are pretty shrubby in habit, most are trees and not well suited for foundation plantings.

Yes, that sound too cold and 5 feet is taller than I had in mind for what the steps look like. Plus trying to hit some exact target within a few inches is impossible. Slow growing things might start out 1-2 feet and take years to get to your 5’. Fast growing will often need more pruning and get bigger all over.
If you tried dwarf Alberta’s, I wonder if you have in mind something more formal and vertical than I have been envisioning— I was thing softer mounding ( but not planted so close it grows over stairs. )

In addition to more about your microclimate, you might visit your local real nurseries and collect some recommendations. And see what they look like.
Sometimes it is easier to then get more feedback on the possibilities— for example , some things that have been recommended to me actually get too big, require more pruning, etc. when I see them elsewhere or read in depth about them from more experienced sources.

One reason it’s hard to make absolute Rec’s is that… sun? where when how long, all afternoon vs all morning.

I imagine the OP means Indian 'Hawthorn', Raphiolepsis. Again, there's no knowing if they'd survive until we get a location.

She told us. ☝️ New Jersey.

Right. I missed that.

Raphiolepis in New Jersey? I don't think so!!

The obvious solution is PJM azaleas. Maybe too obvious? I had a couple of them years ago, but they were in an area that got massive snow dump off the garage roof, and ended up getting badly crushed a few years in a row. Now that spot is taken by a Hydrangea arborescens.

I think the PJM azaleas sounds like a terrific option. Can they be trimmed easily if they get too big after some years? Can we force them to remain a certain size through careful trimming?

We're about 20m south of NYC in northern NJ. The front of the house gets direct sun until about noon, when the sun goes beyond the front-left side of the house.

I'll definitely go to a nursery, but wanted to go equipped with some knowledge and general idea of what to look for, particularly as it's now possible to order all of this online, beyond what the local nursery would be able to offer.

While they are closely related, 'PJM' is a rhododendron cultivar, not an azalea. It is also one of the most cold hardy varieties. Also very early to bloom.