Not a volunteer, it was definitely planted by the previous owners. They had an interest in rare and odd things. I think I've narrowed it down to a Stenocarpus sinuatus (Firewheel Tree), an Australian native, with the help from one of the California Gardening Forum members. So far, that seems to be closest to what I am seeing. I've sent photos to my local tree nursery (Brigg's Tree Nursery in Vista, Calif), who are always ID'ing things for customers. They kind have a little competition between themselves to see who can most frequently ID unusual specimens, so it's "game on" over at Brigg's :-) Patty S.

Yes, that is it , wow that was quick. I appreciate it ,almost went nuts searching through web for info. on this plant.

I still think it was you but don't remember that much if kids were there. Wife black straight hair? Last Saturday at the Devonian gardens we talked about prunus Siberica and thought it to be a rather minor deviation of prunus Manchirica. Even though Siberica is likely to carry over the pink I still have one reserved thought that Robert Purvis knows of about Siberica. That it is an incredibly slow grower and is dwarf. Robert used to live in Alaska and in Idaho still does nothing but apricot in one of his collections in Washington. Gabe Botar was at the gardens who is another person knowing a great deal about apricot. He had scions of a prolific dwarf apricot with small good tasting fruits that he produced from crossed parents. Good stuff because slow growing and dwarf is always great for extreme cold or unprotected sites. For example flowering under the snow would delay bloom and escape the damaging spring frosts. If Clair Lammers (formerly from Edmonton) from Alaska ever grew Gabes apricot he would at least had fruits from this where all other his Manchurica experiments failed. My grandfather may have been around as a retired forester at the time those were planted and lived very close by. Only a remote possibility exists. I came across the trees a few years ago because I wanted to visit my childhood memories of the wading pool that still there in that place and not that anybody told me. Who ever planted them it seems very possible it was done from self pollinated Goldcot seeds similar the way you collected from the pink tree the seeds for another generation.

Might need to wait for a flower to positively ID unless someone is very familiar with this plants other characteristics. You can just barely make out a bud forming in the lower right of pic 3 but it didn't appear to have that "typical" Salix form (oval, furry etc).