This is turning into a bit of a mystery and it's a little frustrating (in a nice way). This isn't something I can figure out with my engineering ways, and I'm not getting to the right place looking it up in Peterson and online.
I'll go through my logic and let's see where it goes. First, these are alternate, simple leaves. The leaves are finely serrated, shiny on the top and bottom. Yesterday I said it was evergreen, but when I went outside today to steal this branch, it was looking decidedly less healthy than yesterday. Since November was so warm, it may just have not lost it's leaves yet. I took some pictures a few weeks ago of other plants in my yard that got confused about winter vs. spring. It's got one bundle scar, I think. (It was impossible to see this with my naked eyes, and I've got 20/20 vision!)
The entire thing is about 4 feet tall. And the bark looks like this, flaky:
As far as I can tell, this is a Mountain Fetterbush (Pieris Floribunda) (or maybe it's:
Eubotrys recurva. Good grief, the internet with all it's errors, is confusing today!) that got confused about when spring is and started to blossom. The blossoms on the Fetterbush are white, but these may be white when they open. The only problem? NY is not in the range of this plant, which should be found, say in the Appalachians, in the south-er east of where I am.
Another possibility is swamp doghobble (
Eubotrys racemosa), but these flowers are terminal and the doghobble aren't.
I'm stuck. Linda?
Edit, 10 minutes later: I think I've got it! Now I think it's a Lily-Of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris Japonica. Here's a picture from M.S. Growers.com. Peterson's was no help at all since this is a shrub that most purchase at nurseries. Time to get back to my regularly scheduled day!
My first thought was that it was an ornamental, but after looking a little bit online, I didn't come up with anything. Glad you have it narrowed down, at least! Funky about the fall flowering, though.
ReplyDelete