The rose family is filled with plants that combine incredible beauty with dire peril.\u00a0 Roses and raspberries have thorns, but those are nothing compared to the small daggers that bedeck the stems of hawthorns and flowering quinces.\u00a0 There is not a flower lover on earth who, when sighting a flowering quince in full bloom, would not want to march right up and clip a few stems.\u00a0 Those who have never dealt with quince before will leave the raptures behind quickly as fingers collide with spines, which can be three quarters of an inch long and exceedingly sharp.\u00a0 Nature will have her little joke\u2026<\/p>\n
Flowering quince\u2014Chaenomeles japonica, Chaenomeles speciosa and hybrids\u2014have been enchanting and lacerating us for a long time.\u00a0 The japonica species was introduced to the United States from Asia in 1784.\u00a0 The somewhat less impressive speciosa species arrived in 1815.\u00a0 The quinces caught on quickly.\u00a0 For some time flowering quince was known as Pyrus japonica, a nod to a closely related Rosaceae family member, the pear tree, whose species name is Pyrus.<\/p>\n
I coveted flowering quince for years before finally acquiring one about five years ago.\u00a0 Mine is a white-flowered variety, which is not what I ordered.\u00a0 What I really wanted was something closer to Vita\u2019s old fashioned \u201cBoule de Feu\u201d or \u201cBowl of Fire,\u201d which has flaming scarlet petals.\u00a0 When the tiny plant arrived, it was duly installed and cosseted for two years before it flowered.\u00a0 By the time that long-awaited event took place, it was too late to get a replacement.\u00a0 Besides, the white flowers are lovely and a few branches rebel and produce red blossoms.\u00a0 They stand out like beacons.<\/p>\n
The mislabeled plant is now about five feet high with a four foot spread and is currently covered with scores of blossoms.\u00a0 They remind me a bit of apple blooms, to which they are related. \u00a0Of course I clip off branches for the house, making sure to clip all the spines before they even pass the threshold.\u00a0 Once impaled, twice shy.<\/p>\n
The difference between flowering quince and common quince\u2014Cydonia oblonga\u2014is that common quince is grown primarily for its aromatic pear-like fruit and the flowering variety, which may also fruit, is grown for its flowers.\u00a0 My flowering quince bore two fruits last year and the fragrance was intoxicating.\u00a0 I am looking forward to more fruits this year, if the weather and the bees cooperate.\u00a0 If I harvest more of them, I will stew them with apples, which makes a delicious quince\/applesauce.<\/p>\n
Twentieth century gardener and garden writer, Vita Sackville-West, co-creator of the great gardens at Sissinghurst in Kent, England, mentioned flowering quince many times in her garden column for the English newspaper the Observer<\/em>.\u00a0 She recommended using them en masse for flowering hedges.\u00a0 Needless to say, the quinces would do double duty in that situation, barring intruders with a wall of barbed branches.<\/p>\n Quinces can also be grown as specimen plants or incorporated into a mixed annual, perennial and shrub border.\u00a0 They appreciate the same conditions as other members of the rose family\u2014full sun and rich, loamy soil.\u00a0 Like many beautiful things, they tend to grow in an undisciplined manner.\u00a0 Prune them after flowering.<\/p>\n In Vita\u2019s day, the most popular flowering quinces were single flowered varieties, like my shrub.\u00a0 Now, judging by the catalog listings, people want fluffy-flowered doubles.\u00a0 Among the popular cultivars are members of a flowering quince series with the trademarked name Double Take.\u00a0 Within that series are varieties christened \u2018Pink Storm,\u2019 \u2018Scarlet Storm\u2019 and \u2018Orange Storm.\u2019\u00a0 For lovers of architectural plants, some catalogs carry Chaenomeles contorta, which has pink-tinged white, single or semi-double flowers and branches contorted in a manner similar to Harry Lauder\u2019s walking stick or Corylus avellana \u2018Contorta.\u2019\u00a0 If space is a problem, try the alpine variety Chaenomeles japonica var alpine, which has single orange flowers and grows only one foot high with a two to three foot spread.<\/p>\n You can still get single-flowered varieties, like Chaenomeles \u2018Spitfire,\u2019 with stunning red-orange blossoms.\u00a0 \u2018Jet Trail\u2019 is a white-flowered cultivar with single petals and \u2018Kan toyo\u2019 bears pink blooms.<\/p>\n Beauty is the best reason to invest in flowering quince.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be intimidated by the spines.\u00a0 For centuries gardeners have grown all kinds of spiny things, including barberries, cacti and holly, and managed, using a combination of gloves and caution, to enjoy them without being seriously maimed.<\/p>\n Some local nurseries carry varieties of flowering quince.\u00a0 For good selections go to Klehm\u2019s Song Sparrow Farm and Nursery, 13101 E. Rye Road, Avalon, WI, 53505, (800) 553-3715, www.songsparrow.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Also try ForestFarm, PO Box 1, Williams Oregon 97544, (541) 846-7269, www.forestfarm.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The rose family is filled with plants that combine incredible beauty with dire peril.\u00a0 Roses and raspberries have thorns, but those are nothing compared to the small daggers that bedeck the stems of hawthorns and flowering quinces.\u00a0 There is not a flower lover on earth who, when sighting a flowering quince in full bloom, would … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[554,555,553,491,540],"class_list":["post-798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","tag-chaenomeles-japonica","tag-chaenomeles-speciosa","tag-flowering-quince","tag-flowering-shrubs","tag-spring-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions\/799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}