Originally Posted by braingonebad

How tall/wide would you prefer? Some get bigger than others.

For evergreens - nonflowering - that don't have to be pruned, go with arborvitae. Not needing pruning is good, but I also love them because they have soft, touchable greens. Not pokey. They keep a pretty, natural shape and come in many profiles - globe, carpet, pyramid are some I'm familiar with.

They can (DO, lol) out grow spaces and eventually may need to be removed, but that generally takes many years and is well worth the not needing all those clippings over their lifetimes. And when they do need to be chopped down, it's not that hard - we took out four this year.

For blooming shrubs, most need some kind of prune but not like those square shrubs you're talking about. Gosh I hate that square shrub thing.

Originally Posted by Av8rgirl

Potentilla. It comes in several different colors - yellow, reddish, tangerine, white. It needs no pruning, drought tolerant, has a nice shape, nice flower, and you can prune it once a year if you want to keep it from getting too "woody." It handles full sun very well as well as partial sun, partial shade.


http://www.monrovia.com/learn/plant_...arch_term_add=

Here's Monrovia's website page on Potentiila for information about the plant. It's very versatile! And it's usually very cheap! If you go for the yellow, Goldfinger is the best one!