i personally don't care much for bushes save the flowering types and still am pretty picky about them. i esp. don't care for the juniper type of shrubbery. not only do i dislike the smell, they are prone to pests. i have grown gardenia and hydrangea with some success. in zone 8, an area where i used to live, shrubbery would take at least 2 years to begin growing visibly. of course, the plants were busy taking root beneath the soil and gave me blooms just to let me know they weren't dead. now that i'm in zone 9/10 (L.A. area), i have no clue how long it takes shrubs to finally take. but, i have noticed that some plants i wouldn't have considered as shrubbery fairs quite well here - hardy hibiscus, mexican heather, and perennial geraniums just to name a few. they are pruned and shaped like regular hedges and seem to deal with it just fine. another plant used as a screen are italian cypresses. these are the tall, thin cone-like trees (they look like a type of juniper). they grow in abundance here and seem to do quite well. i've also seen mature ponsettias that are now shrubs and yes, they bloom in december (another thing that surprised me). i've had no luck with them but these california folks seem to know what they're doing. or perhaps it's because they are a native to mexico, not too far away. i think what i dislike most about shrubbery is the keeping of them. esp. hedges. they are such a hassle to trim up and then if you really need to do some serious pruning, they are so naked (like i had to do upon moving in to my house). but, it is necessary to maintain some sort of neatness. on the other hand, i really enjoy looking at topiary and admire the patience necessary to train a shrub into an unnatural shape (and i'm not talking about training ivy over chickenwire).

Hibiscus is what is bushes in Hawaii - but so is everything else including poinsettias. Everything grows outrageously here!

the kids and i trimmed out the bottoms of the bushes in the front yard--had too as my husband came home one night to find fat raccoons roaming our housing area. but the bushes look better now and light can get through them. (would love to take them out but that basically takes a request in to the civil engineering folks because we'd be changing the landscape)--we live on a military installation.