All plants should resemble the actual species. Brief seasonal colors and short-lived flowers should usually be ignored unless we get a special request from the client. If you are not already familiar with the species, search Google Images for examples using the scientific names. Often, when a plant does have a bright seasonal color, the example images will highlight this. So the bright color should serve as your red flag to learn if the plant only looks this way for 2 weeks out of the year.
We also will typically show trees “in their youth”, smaller and more transparent than when the tree is 20 years old.