White flowering mystery tree

By popular request (and because I’m dying to know), we’re going to take a closer look at the mystery tree featured in Dad’s Father’s Day post on June 18, 2006.

This tree planted in front of my cottage is about my height, bringing it to an estimated 1.5 meters tall. Having only lived here for six months, I have no idea how long this tree has been in this spot. This makes it hard for me to gauge as to whether it is a young tree, or a small-growing species.

Leaves are no greater than maybe four or five centimeters in length, the flowers are about two centimeters in diameter (max). These leaves grow alternating along the branch, with almost-smooth edges. The edges appear to have very non-distinctive, slight “teeth” that stretch length-wise along the sides, but are difficult to see in these images.

It’s really too bad that the flowers didn’t stick around very long, because they were just so lovely! The flowers hang underneath the branches in pairs of two, as you can see clearly in the unopened buds of the final image. Just a few small, round, green “fruits” are now swelling where the flowers once bloomed, but aren’t distinctive enough to give me any clues about this tree’s identity.

All thoughts and suggestions are welcome as usual, and in the meantime, file this one under Tree, Mystery.