Since it is close to the house, I'd consider Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans. Evergreen, handsome foliage, fragrant flowers several times a year. Mine has grown pretty quickly after the 2nd year. It may exceed 8 feet tall eventually, but is easy to prune back down.

Thanks for the idea. Do you have any good pictures of a Tea Olive? Is it a neat looking plant, or is it wild looking?
I know that question sounds stupid, but This will be facing the front of my house, alhtough it is on the side, and I like to keep a neat, tighty, well manacured look. Anything on camelias?

I would consider the Tea Olive to be more upright than wide and very tolerant of pruning. Shape it in the first couple of years and it will probably be just want you it to be. A couple doors down the neighbor has two of them flanking a power box. The shrubs are full yet compact, all that you'd want it to be.

I don't have any experience with camellias.

Pieris japonica 'Variegata' is a dwarf shrub that I like a lot. It's a slow starter, but grows into a mounded form, 4-5' tall, with little or no pruning. I have only had to occasionally remove a branch with solid green leaves.

Sorry, don't have photos of mine. Santa and the Birthday Elves haven't left a DC for me, yet! (Probably couldn't learn to operate one anyway)!

I grow about 30 Camellias, C. japonica & C. sasanqua and just purchased several more!
They can grow quite tall and wide, unless selectively pruned. Some of my 20 yearold ones are 15+ft. tall now.
I have a row of C. sasanquas that are maintained at a 4ft. level, by pruning every few years.
Last year,I replaced a C. sasanqua, adjacent to my front entrance, that had developed an advanced case of leaf gall, with a C. japonica 'Jury's Yellow'. It will need to be pruned later on, to keep it at a reasonable height, no more than 6ft. It has grown about 1 ft. since planted. A friend called last evening to inform me that he had rooted a cutting for me, of a pink one that is extremely fragrant. So, it may replace that one, unless I can find another suitable location near the entrance for it. With 6 Daphne odoras lining the walkway and a fragrant Camellia near the porch, anyone that rings the doorbell, ought to be in a good mood! (unless they have just slipped on ice coating the steps) :Be patient with any shrub you plant, it requires a couple of years (at least) for the roots to become established and provide energy for foliage growth.
Rb

I had a few C sasanqua at my home in Marietta and they did great with morning sun and afternoon shade. They took shaping well and grew to 7-8' tall in 5 years. Not much fragrance. Only minor problem with galls.
Do see if you can find a place for tea olives upwind of where you spend time outside. My experience is that they are not dense no matter how much they are pruned so they look best with companions.

I've got my eyes on a yuletide camelia, I really like the photos I've seen of these. Anyone had any experience with these around atlanta? any luck?

blaze....
C. sasanqua 'Yuletide' are the one's that I prune to keep low. There are 7 of them in a row, used as part of the emerald necklace in front of the lower level of my house (north, street facing). They have been there since 1985, when I had to replace almost all of the shrubs that year, due to freeze kill.
They seem to be a longer blooming variety, than most sasanquas.
Growers Outlet had 3gal. size, last time I was there (in late Sept.).
Rb

the only yuletide i've met personally didn't grow very fast at all - less than 8 inches in 5 years - but it got pretty much no fertilizer and no care except pruning at the wrong time. it was still gorgeous and bloomed okay, just small.