Hoo boy...don't know nuttin about Arizona plants, but looks Magnolia-ish to me.

+oM

Fothergilla????? Amelanchier?????Could you get a closer picture? I'm not even sure they're flowers rather than newly expanding leaves.

I think it's Arkansas not Arizona. I think it looks like my Star Magnolia.

Yes, I realized that the other day! Sure didn't look anything like how I envision Arizona! At any rate, there must be wild magnolias in Arkansas, huh? that's my best guess at this poor resolution.

+oM

The white things look like the unopened blooms of the Piedmont azaleas growing in my creek bottom.

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RHCA7

The blooms do appear before the leaves. I found a photo of mine.

Magnolias are evergreen. The flowers in the first picture look like they're on otherwise bare branches.

Magnolias are evergreen in climates that allow for such. Here in WI-hardly prime magnolia country-they are never evergreen, poor rhyming scheme notwithstanding!

+om

I didn't think they grew that far north. Or were deciduous. My mind is now ready to explode.

Lucky you! I retired to Hot Springs Village ARkansas, but it is beautiful here also - largest gated community on the planet.

That bloom sure does look like a magnolia bloom. Do you remember what the leaves looked like. Are there any dried fallen leaves under it? I would love to see 4 season photos.

Anything I can't identify I send pics to Garvan Woodland Gardens here for an ID. Have you tried your county agent?

Looks like leaf out to me, rather than blooms. OP, can you show us an updated picture of a leaf?