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I just bought my house last summer and I have no idea what this bush in my yard is that has pink buds that open into green leaves. I live in Michigan where we've had a cold spring so it's just now starting to leaf out.

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CSharpQuestions
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    Grins, there is absolutely no possible way to ID over the internet without at least photographs. Pink flowers and green leaves, let me see...must be thousands of shrubs with pink flowers (pink as they are in bud but what color when fully open), green leaves are you saying this plant is deciduous? – stormy May 02 '18 at 22:34
  • Yes stormy, it's deciduous. Just bright green leaves that start out as bright pink buds. I was able to edit and upload pics hopefully they show up soon. – CSharpQuestions May 03 '18 at 00:41
  • And I’m making a first guess based on the photo: Chaenomeles speciosa, flowering or Chinese quince. But I’ll happily wait for more pictures before I write a full answer. – Stephie May 03 '18 at 12:42
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    Use your hand behind flower/leaf to get focus on your camera. – VividD May 03 '18 at 15:16
  • How tall / wide is the plant? Does it have some kind of thorns? – Stephie May 04 '18 at 05:42
  • Could it be an aronia? – VividD May 04 '18 at 09:12
  • @Stephie it's between 5 and 6 feet tall and 4 and 5 get in diameter. It's at least 10 years old because the previous owner who lived here 9 years didn't make any improvements or even prune things. There's aren't any thorns, and so far I'm not seeing any flowers emerging anywhere yet either. – CSharpQuestions May 04 '18 at 10:18
  • Those flower buds are pretty much ready to open - can you post another pic of a flower or two once they do open please? And a photo taken from further away to reveal the overall growth habit if possible too.Note they are flower buds - the green leaves are coming out separately from the red buds. – Bamboo May 04 '18 at 11:21
  • Erm, the pink things are flower buds. They should open within a few days, a week maximum. And as @Bamboo said: Overall habit would be interesting. – Stephie May 04 '18 at 11:38
  • I'll see if I can figure out how to get a pic of the full shrub cropped etc to be able to upload it. : ) – CSharpQuestions May 04 '18 at 11:56
  • Some of my maples have red leaf buds and green leaves, which is almost unbelievable - so it is possible, in my layman view, that the pictured buds are leaf buds. But let's wait a couple of days. – VividD May 04 '18 at 12:59
  • @Bamboo I a picture of a bloom and the overall habit of the shrub. And I succeeded in uploading them :) – CSharpQuestions May 05 '18 at 03:11
  • sorry it's been a while - I don't know what's going on but although you pinged me, I did not receive a notification and didn't realise you'd uploaded another pic... found it by accident. – Bamboo May 10 '18 at 20:53

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I'm pretty sure this is Chaenomeles, probably Chaenomeles superba 'Pink Lady', which is almost thornless; the flowerbuds are dark pink but open to a paler pink. If the flowers are pollinated, then you should get some fruits later in the year, but quite often, there are no fruits at all, or just one or two. https://mikesgardentop5plants.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/flowering-quince-chaenomeles/. If you don't mind losing fruits, this plant is best pruned directly after flowering, if you want to reshape or reduce its size. Doing so should create a bushier plant.

Bamboo
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  • I think you are correct. It appears to be thornless, flowers are lighter pink than the buds, and I did see a few fruits laying on the ground near it, but I never associated then to the shrub. I thought maybe a squirrel had carried them up the tree next to it : ) Thank you for your help! – CSharpQuestions May 11 '18 at 10:50