Timing: fall is the best time to plant shrubs and trees, including now through November.

Azaleas in hot sun from 11 to sundown don't do well. They tend to get stressed and sometimes stress leads to problems like lacebugs (flip over the leaf to see lacebugs).

There are so many good full sun shrub choices, you really don't need to press your azaleas to handle it. George Tabor azaleas are lovely but they would appreciate shade after 2 pm.

A nice evergreen plant that flowers and looks great is Abelia. Two new cultivars: Rose Creek and Canyon Creek. See this link and scroll down a bit to find descriptions of them. Rose Creek is the more compact of the two.

sod put down, then a tree placed somewhere out there, with the eventual idea of doing an annual garden under the tree or potted plants. Any ideas on a tree for that area, for shade?

Try not to put the tree in the middle of grass, I would certainly put a generous island around it so that there is no competition and no lawnmower/weedwhacker accidents. I think the last time you posted, several people recommended Liriodendron tulipfera (Tulip popular) or a fast growing oak like Shumard.

As for a place to buy plants, I recommend Buck Jones Nursery in Woodstock (it is on Hwy 140, north of Crabapple).

And yes, pansies do well here and I think snapdragons do too; I've seen a lot of people use them recently.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buck Jones

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the rose creek, as I think it would look better in the front height wise. On various sites it says it's a sun/part sun plant. It'll hold up in all the sun in my front?

Any other full-sun flowering shrubs that I could consider? My wife likes options :-)

Tell me if it matters to her whether the plant is evergreen or deciduous.

I think she definitely wants a leaf throughout the winter. In NOLA we didn't have this problem. Azaleas never lost their leaves or anything. So I am guessing evergreen since it will be in the front of our house. She hates the unattractive brown look.

I've struggled with finding "showy" flowering shrubs for full sun too. I wanted mostly evergreen initially, but I've ended up with a mix of evergreen and deciduous as so many of the deciduous shrubs have really beautiful flowers. You have a big enough area that you could have a good amount of evergreen and mix in a few deciduous.

This is what I currently have (all planted this year, so I can't comment on how well they will do over time), with a couple of things that are on their way mail-order from Lazy S'S that i will plant soon:

EVERGREEN:

Abelia Rose Creek, Canyon Creek, Mardi Gras, Little Richard (mine have done fine so far in full sun from 9am-6pm. The flowers are not as showy as azaleas or rhodies, but they do flower for ages)

Loropetalum Purple Diamond, Purple Pixie, Ever Red and others (i love these, such hot pink flowers against the purple leaves)

Viburnum tinus "Spring Bouquet" (slow growing but pretty early spring flowers)

Azalea Formosa, Sunglow and George L Taber (i planted these last winter before i realized I had full sun. They did fine this year, but I am concerned that they might not continue to do well)

Hypericum Albury Purple (St Johns Wort, yellow spring flowers)

Ceanothus thyrsiflorus (blue spring flowers, this is mail-order so I have not planted yet)

Callistemon Woodlander's Red (bright red bottlebrush-like flowers, mail-order too so not planted yet but I am very excited about it!)

DECIDUOUS:

Itea Virginica Henry's Garnet and Little Henry (these are fantastic, great reddish fall color now)

Spirea Neon Flash (very pink!) and Little Princess

Weigela Ruby Queen (purple leaves and pink flowers)

Caryopteris Dark Knight and Longwood Blue

Callicarpa americana (fantastic purple berries now)

Vitex Agnus-Castus (will grow tree-sized, buddleia-like blue flowers)

Fothergilla Mt Airy (white bottle-brush flowers)

Cotinus Grace

Japanese Maple

Sambucus nigra Black Lace (almost black leaves and pink flowers, this is coming mail-order so not planted yet)

Evergreen shrub choices for full sun (6 or more hours of sun):

Abelia, as mentioned
Japanese holly, Ilex crenata (flowers insignificant)
Yaupon holly (dwarf), Ilex vomitoria (love the name!, get a dwarf, flowers are insignificant)
Ilex glabra, same as the previous too (obviously they are all related to some degree)
Loropetalum, not fully evergreen but mostly
Florida anisetree, Illicum parviflorum (can get big)
'Otto Luyken' laurel, bees like it
Camellias (not sure if they come in dwarf sizes)
Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans (flowers not showy but very fragrant, needs a space at least 8 feet tall)
Indian hawthorn - not sure of it's sun tolerance.

You have more choices if you mix in a few deciduous shrubs or if you had more shade.

Encore azaleas do great in full sun and are a nice looking plant.

indian hawthorn loves full sun. ours are facing southwest with full sun after 9-11 am - against a stone facade. we have the pink flowering, which i think are much nicer than the white.

we also have creeping gardenia on that side, which blooms pretty much constantly from spring to frost every year. They only get 3 feet high or so, but so far i haven't found a limit to how wide they will get. Luckily they handle all the pruning we dish out.

snapdragons are great, but johnny-jump ups are spring only for me.