I'd suggest the Pacific series of Limonium sinuatum. The flowers come on stems that are about 2 to 2 1/2 feet tall. It has fairly strong, basic colors -- yellow, white, blue, rose. The Turbo series is somewhat shorter and includes apricot and peach as well as the basics.

The only dwarf annual statice I know of is Petite Bouquet, and it's still a foot tall. I think it might work well as an edging plant, although we've used it for dried arrangements.

In perennials, there are some neat, dwarf, rock-garden types, but the problem is finding them, not avoiding them.

"German statice," Gonolimon tartaricum, has stems about a foot to 18 inches tall and then branches that curve out to form almost a hemisphere of small white flowers over the basal foliage -- very stiff and architectural and in need of scarcely any drying time.