Flowering Quince
Chaenomeles
…for early blooms with a promise of spring's return
Common name: Flowering Quince, Japanese Quince
Latin Name: Chaenomeles
Design Tip: Valued for early garden blooms, yet unremarkable thereafter, they are best incorporated in an understory planting, a mixed ornamental hedgerow or as a filler shrub along the back of a sunny border. In mass plantings, the spiny thicket of branches provides a dense hedging barrier on difficult sites.
Form: The deciduous multi-stemmed shrubs develop into twiggy upright mounds.
Size: Depending on the variety, heights range from three to eight feet tall.
Flowers: Single flowered varieties have clusters of five petal-ed, cup shaped blooms, one to two inches in diameter appearing before the leaves on last year's wood. Cultivars include red, pink, salmon or white flowers and semi-double and double flowered varieties. Beginning in mid to late winter, the bushes bloom for several weeks on leafless stems and remains in flower as young red foliage emerges.
Foliage: Deciduous two-inch oval leaves spaced on spindly branches begin to fall while green in late summer.
Fruit: Most ornamental garden varieties produce little or no fruit, although egg-sized yellow quince fruits from the species can add aromatic flavoring to homemade jams and jellies.
Soil: This easy to grow shrub adapts to a wide range of soils in well-drained sites. It tolerates high temperatures and long dry spells.
Light Exposure: A full sun site generates maximum growth and bloom, although it also performs well in partial shade.
Cold Tolerance: Most varieties are hardy in USDA Zones 6-9, or more northerly in protected sites.
Grooming: Periodic pruning can rejuvenate the shrub shape and flower production.
Propagation: Half-hardened cuttings can be struck in late summer through autumn. Suckering varieties can be divided and transplanted to mature into new shrubs.
Snippets: Originating from Japan and China, most varieties easily naturalize across much of Texas. Budded branches can be cut to bloom in winter in a vase of water, indoors. Numerous cultivars have been developed from the three species. The most commonly available form, Chaenomeles x superba `Texas Scarlet', matures at three feet and has red-salmon flowers and fewer thorns.
Cultivated, photographed and written by
Maggie Ross McNeely in Ft. Worth, Texas
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