I have a couple of baby arbutus Marinas. They look the same in summer and winter. No sticky gunk, but they drop a fair number of leaves all year. I don't have any input particular to your area, but there are a couple of mature Marinas over in West LA that I was checking out and my takeaway from looking at them is that they are stocky, sturdy trees when grown - think oak treeish feel in the trunk, and the canopy is DENSE. They are also extremely slow growing, and also more expensive (by a hefty chunk) than the jacaranda I purchased (probably because they're slow growing). I wouldn't personally consider the Marina "ornamental" unless your landscape has more of a native look to it. I think they are paired a lot with CA native plants. Definitely "nice" looking, with the pretty red bark, but nobody is going to stop and stare like they would with the HK orchid. Western redbud doesn't bud reliably in my neighborhood (costal), but you might have a bit more chill up where you live. My redbut leaves start looking sickly around Nov. 1, with its very slow leaf drop process. Can't remember when the leaves are fully off and when they come back, but it is bare for a good couple of months. Hope that helps.

If you don't want bare for part of the year then you don't want anything deciduous. Except some deciduous trees do have colorful and/or textural stems that provide plenty of winter interest.

You might think about going to the wonderful Huntington Botanical Garden and walking around there to see if anything grabs you.

Which by the way has a rose garden that pops up on national maps of important rose gardens.

https://www.huntington.org/gardens

Arbutus 'Marina' gets pretty big - not sure if you have size restrictions.

Arbutus unedo species is slow growing and when large has very dense vegetation. The arbutus 'Marina' cultivar has been quite fast growing in my garden. I planted a 3' tall 15 gallon Marina 4 years ago and it is about 10' tall now. The Marina has larger foliage and it is less dense than the species. Both of them flower but they are not very showy, they wouldn't draw much notice from the street. I think Marina is a spectacular plant because of the bark. People frequently make comments about it when they see our yard.

I have an Arbutus Marina too. It was about 5'x5' planted from a 24" box 5 years ago. It's now about 8' high and 10' wide. The flowers and fruit are not much to look at, but they are popular with the birds. The red, shredded trunk is really pretty and it's a good, sturdy tree that doesn't care if it gets lawn water or no summer water. I let my neighbor water mine....

Arbutus marina does have a habit of falling over. I think Sunset mentions that. But i've seen some lean much. They are great looking tree's..looking like native Manzanita ("Little Apple" in Spanish they tell me) with the red trunk.

Doubtless the falling over is due to the stock being supplied with bound roots. Otherwise a problem seen up my way in the past is it being only hardy to about 15 F. - but in Pasadena such will not be an issue at any time in the foreseeable future.

In fact it's been getting warmer up here as well.

thanks all for your comments! after reading everything I decided to go with a Hong Kong orchid. It’s arriving tmw. Will keep you posted how it goes!

Does anyone know, are these - the HK orchid - the trees that are planted as street trees in Chinatown (LA)?

I saw some trees last January (I think it was) blooming on Hill (unless it was Broadway but Idt so) and they were absolutely stunning. On the west side of the street north of the freeway. This post just reminded me. Those are amazing trees. (If I hadn’t seen one I might’ve wondered how come no one likes magnolias anymore ... maybe people have gotten too used to them? Personally I would love to smell more of them.)

On that list,only the Hong Kong Orchid and the Erythrina are not grown in the bay area as street trees. Although I have seen quite a few E. crista galli in yards here,I've never seen those great big E.caffras.

I had a potted Orchid tree bloom on me..it was kind of off white. I would think they are worth a try here if somebody ordered one. I don't think we've had a Orchid tree killing freeze since 1990.

If shot hole borers are a problem in your area, you may want to avoid the trees on the list attached. Host trees for shot hole borers

Thanks, Hoovb, what a great link!

If I get a chance I’ll try to get back over there and take some pics. Whatever those trees are, I don’t think I’d ever seen them before. Really incredible. (They were similar to the ones in the parking lot of Farmers Market over near the area between the Container Store and that restaurant just southeastish of it ... can’t remember the name. Except, I don’t think they were exactly the same, just at that same sort of amazing size of bloom.)

I had to edit my last comment. Now,it says what I was thinking!

Speaking of climate - as in Sunset - Zone 21 I see the 2012 version of the Western Garden Book (Time Home Entertainment, New York) says the best flowering from Bauhinia comes from those located out of wind and on soils that are "semi-fertile". So if your planting site is out in the open and you are fertilizing your roses frequently or otherwise trying to give them a fertile soil (full exposure to sun and rich soil being two things typically provided for hybrid roses by enthusiasts) these factors may have some effect on how your new tree behaves.