Where in southern California?

and what do you mean by the term 'evergreen' ... it has a multitude of usages ...

conifers ??

evergreen trees ??

or shrubs ...???

and while you are at it.. define more precisely.. partial sun ... in terms of hours and which hours ... 8 hours of sun.. is part of a day.. but could be considered good enough to grow full sun plants ... but on the other hand.. one hour of sun.. could be called partial ..

and finally .. not much is going to stop growing at some magical height.. and maintaining it at some height.. usually involves pruning ... is that an option .. in the long run ...

and boy.. a pic would sure help us define it all ...

more info please ...

ken

The location is the Los Angeles area valleys, near Pasadena. As for sun conditions, filtered sun for maybe three hours a day for part of the area to very bright shade all day for the rest of the area. Pruning is an option but we really want to keep anything planted to two to three feet. Our interest is in shrubs only but any plant that is green all year.

Thanks for looking.

Maybe Rhaphiolepis.

In my experience with Rhapheolepis in the deep south, if not grown in as much sun as possible, they will be plagued by a disfiguring (and worse, if not treated) leaf spot disease....Entomosporium.

Seems like we've discussed this before, bboy. Didn't you say that this disease was not a problem in the PNW? In the south, these plants had better be planted in the full sun, where they thrive.
They are also very drought tolerant.