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Flowering quince offers pretty blooms
Flowering quince, Chaenomeles speciosa, is a small shrub that bears a profusion of very showy coralcolored blooms that resemble the blooms of peach, pear and apple, with whom it shares a kinship. Quince leafs out after the blooms drop and the leaves are small, glossy and maroon-green. This display doesn't last long in my garden because they are usually attacked by leaf spot and drop off. This leaves just the thorns on the billowing limbs of the rangy plant. Because of the unwelcome thorns the University of Georgia uses flowering quince as a barrier hedge in an attempt to keep rampaging coeds on the sidewalks. Everything I read says that flowering quince fruits, but mine doesn't. The apple-like pomes that it can produce are used by enterprising cooks to produce jelly. The fruits are reportedly very tart, so would require a great deal of sugar in the processing (and more skill than I possess). My quince are planted in among an area that has been claimed by suckering forsythia. If all goes well - and it doesn't always - these two plants bloom at the same time. They look great together and brighten up the garden when few other plants are flowering. You will only need to prune your flowering quince to maintain size and shape. Mine grows so agonizingly slow that I don't ever remember pruning it. If you do cut it back, remove one-third of the older branches at ground level after flowering. Quince likes sun and a wet summer will defoliate it even more quickly than leaf spot. Surprisingly, this lack of foliage doesn't seem to bother this hardy plant very much. It doesn't like alkaline soil, so keep the lime away from it. Mine gets a little gift of 10-10-10 in spring when I fertilize other shrubs. Your quince will be safe from deer and insects. This plant will doubtless outlive you and your children and one can often see flowering quince blooming happily away at old, abandoned home sites. All the research I have done says that flowering quince can be found with red or white blooms. The only color I have ever seen is the coral one and that is good enough for me.
Dora Garrick Fleming lives in Grove Hill. E-mail her at: dorafleming@galaxycable.net.
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