You might want to consider not only which plants to use but where and how to use them. The traditional approach of 'foundation planting' never was a very satisfying concept - a bandage of plants around the house. That is, if you plant areas around the house and adjacent areas not next to the house you can create a much more interesting landscape. Here is a link to a garden on my portfolio. I should have this entire project up but I only have a couple of pictures but this might give you an idea. If you want to see more, let me know.

Here is a link that might be useful: suburban landscape

Well yes, while business self-promotion is frowned on in these forums, and so I would argue with the decision to link to his/her website, KD is correct in saying that the first question in foundation planting should always be "do I need foundation planting at all?"

Quite aside from it being kind of a mundane, cookie cutter look, plants at the foundation do not always grow well due to light coming from only one direction or inadequate rainfall due to eaves or the house creating a rain shadow, plus they make maintenance of both garden and house envelope a pain. Plants close the house also function as harborage for spiders and likely other insects and critters that I'd prefer not to think about.

To post pictures here, open a free account on a photohosting site like photobucket. Load your pictures to your album on that site, then copy the HTML tag from the photo and paste it into the body of your message here. When you click on preview message, your photos should show up.

When you post, specify the problem with which you need assistance... so far you've only said you need shrub suggestions, which actually your local nurseries are far better positioned to assist you with. If you need suggestions to help you overcome a design challenge, then by all means post away. Oh, and you might as well stay in the same thread to avoid filling up the forum with thread fragments.

KarinL