Snowball tree

Our house came with a variety of plants and tree's growing near it. Actually, the neighborhood is full of all types of different plants and tree's. Things like Honeysuckle, Lilac, Birch, Dogwood, Tulip trees, the Redwood tree growing by our driveway (or 'in' because it's so huge) and many, many more. It's pretty cool and reflective of the nature of the valley and also all the people who have lived here in the past.



One of our trees looks like it had been cut down and then a bunch of suckers started growing up out of its stump. It has what appears to be small Maple leaves growing on it. In fact, that's what we thought it was and considered removing it because it's ill-placed near the road. We temporarily sheered it back so we could at least see past it when pulling out of the driveway and could decide what to do with it.

But before we could get to it, tiny leaves started budding all over. Within a week, it was full of leaves again. And then, something beautiful happened.



Small yellow pompom groups of flowers suddenly appeared. The little "poms" are only a few inches across and have littered the tree with their daintiness. They look quite a bit like mini hydrangeas.



Mom, Aunt Rose and Faythe all believe it's a Snowball Tree. Our neighbors said it had red flowers on it but it looks to me like they're going to be red. I found some dried up looking vines growing up through the tree (you can also see them in the first photo) that appear to have had something on them, perhaps berries or flowers. I'm thinking these are the source of the red berries/flowers everyone is talking about and they died when Apollo pruned the tree. Either way, it looks like we won't be taking out the tree any time soon.

ETA: It's been confirmed, it's a Snowball tree!