What to Plant?

It is time for me to do SOMETHING about our pitiful front flower bed. For the first two years we were here, I planted some cute little bubblegum pink azaleas. The first two summers we were here were also record breaking droughts, so now there are only a couple of azalea twigs left. (This is out of 10 total, with 5 being replanted after the first year.) There is yellow lantana in the front, but of course it isn’t up yet and dies down during the winter to make it look completey empty and lifeless.
As of now, I have narrowed it down to the idea of perhaps putting some small gardenia bushes there-because we don’t have enough carpenter bees living in our porch rails-or some small white azaleas yet again.
I’ve contemplated boxwoods (no flowers), nandinas (poisonous berries and more of a fall display anyway), and cactus (they’d survive a drought!).
I might have to look around some more. Sigh.