The buds of Mountain Laurel are odd looking for sure, but without a picture I can't be sure. You should find out for sure by sometime in June or earlier depending on you local climate.

I have a night blooming jasmine that puts out a branch or two every year that has that interesting very flat shape. It blooms as well as the other limbs. Back to Texas Mountain Laurels: I did prune mine in summer 2010 to remove the leggy falling over limbs. It has a much better shape, now, and is blooming profusely for the first time is years. Mine does not get much sun and usually has only a couple of small blooms. I wonder if the drought helped it. But I know much of its root zone was watered by my neighbor's sprinkler system (it's almost on the property line), and they didn't change their watering habits.

Thanks for the tip. Would have driven over for a larger one if our 3rd year seedling wasn't doing so well. Even after doubling in size this spring, it's still significantly less than 2ft tall... though was unscathed by last winter's deep freeze, so has our respect. Not sure why we don't see them more frequently on our side of Dallas.

We had no freezes so they opened beautifully outside (and after rain and temperatures in the 90s are pretty much done, now). But I did cut some to put in a vase - didn't last long but looked pretty for a couple of days. The scent was very faint, however - nothing like how intense they can be in a sunny garden!