Shrubs or plant ideas to replace boxwoods

Zone 5
I landscape the grounds where I work, with the help of a bunch of hard working kids. Whoever started the landscaping did not think it through to well, the flower beds are way to big, most of the plants were planting in the wrong areas, and nobody had pruned any bushes for I don't know how long. There was an entire boxwood hedge along the building that nobody even knew existed! lol Last year we grew some perennials to fill in the large area: shasta daisys, salvia, purple coneflowers, gaillardia, and daylilies, they did well considering it was the first year, I am hoping they fill in good this year! I plan on bordering the beds with profusion mix zinnias.

Problem now is, the dreaded BOXWOODS were planted so unevenly to begin with, even after a good trim, they just don't look so good, think I am going to give up on them. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas of a great plant or shrub for the back of the flower beds, (they would be against a wall) could be about 2 ft high maybe a little higher. I have flowering plums along the areas of the wall where there are no windows, for color and height, and some spirea bushes here and there in the middle. Any suggestions?

The shasta daisies are your tallest plant now right? So you want something taller than them, but not to block windows much?
As far as other shrubs go, there are some euonymous that would fit that size, maybe arb's or yews, spriea - depends on how much room they would have.
Perennials would be easy, helenium, delphinium,monarda, ornamental grasses - the list could go on a while.

Wow! At only 2 feet high, you really don't have much height to work with, and most of the shrubs I know get to at least 2 - 3 feet. Another striking one that might work is a dwarf burning bush - beautiful in the fall, and can be managed for height. I go with bigcityal as far as perennials. The ones he listed are favorites, but they too can easily be higher than 2 feet. - Dax

Dax - I can't argue with you on the height. It might be hard to have 2' as the tallest plant there. I would love the front row as gaillardia, middle and coneflowers and the helenium in the back - that would go from 8" in front to 3' in back though.

Yes, that would be beautiful! Dax

Sounds great. I have the galliardia in the front, coneflower and shasta and salvia in the back, I measured and I lie, I am terrible at measurements. I could easily use shrubs about 3 ft high 4 ft at the highest.
I'm looking into wine and roses weigela. Still open for suggestions.

I have planted dwarf inkberries Ilex glabra 'Shamrock' in place of boxwoods. Here's a pic, they were planted last June, ultimate H x W is supposedly 3-4 feet.

prairiegirl, Nice flower bed and very professional looking.

flowerprincess, I did a search for shrubs suitable for zone 5 with 3-4' height and tolerant of sun to partial shade and came up with numerous possibilities. Do you prefer evergreen? If not, how about blooms and what color or for how long? Also, many shrubs provide fruit and fall color. Then there's also landscape roses; such as; Rosa "Knockout". I found a lot of photos and info. on this one searching plantfiles. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/268/index.html

I spent many hours searching for native shrubs to order for spring planting, and found such a huge selection that it was hard for me to keep my list within reason. You might also try the trees and shrubs forum for suggestions. Those folks are pretty helpful.
Betty

Dear Flowerprincess,

Do you have any pictures of the place that you landscape? May help to visualize.

There are alot of shrubs you could plant and then just trim after flowering to maintain the height you want. Barberry Crimson Pygmy comes to mind...also the spireas can be trimmed almost to the ground every spring. Are these English Box you are talking about? They don't really like to be trimmed so much as just plucking out of the middle to give them more air circulation. I would hate to see you get rid of them if they are healthy. It would be good to see a picture of the area.

I love barberries and spiraeas, thinking of adding them to my planting too, along the side of the house. There is a gold barberry called 'Bogozam' that is supposed to be better at holding it's color than past cultivars.