@Suzyp831 The registered foliage habit is how it behaves in the registrant's garden as assessed by that registrant, so it doesn't necessarily follow that a cultivar will do the same everywhere or be interpreted the same by everyone. I think often people assess them at spring emergence.
A hybridizer in a cold climate, for example, may rightly assses a cultivar as "dormant" because it emerges as a spear with two short leaves on the outside in spring. However, in a warmer climate it could be evergreen. I have some registered evergreens that obviously set dormant buds here in my colder winter climate.
For another example, Stout wrote that 'Chengtu' was deciduous in a warmer climate (Florida) but evergreen or partly-evergreen in New York. This is quite the opposite to what most people would think!
Not sure if this fully answers your question?
