When someone says "quince," do you think of a bush grown in the yard with pretty spring flowers, or does a jelly come to mind first? Or does it depend on how hungry you are?
The plant that produces the fruit used to make the quince jellies, jams, etc. that you can buy at the supermarket is Cydonia oblonga. Vanessa Richins Myers, About.com Guide to Trees and Shrubs, identifies it as a member of the Rose family, which also include apples and pears (hawthorn trees too, incidentally). Vanessa also notes that it's related to those other quinces: the landscaping plants in the Chaenomeles genus.
In referring to the "Chaenomeles genus" we're talking about flowering quince bushes. The older types do produce an edible fruit from which jams, etc. can be made, but you'd need an awful lot of them to make it worth your trouble. That's why it's no big deal that the new cultivars I discuss in my article on flowering quince bushes dispense with fruiting altogether -- it has been bred out of them. But for most of us, growing flowering quince bushes has always been about their good looks, right?
Well, that depends on whom you ask. As I relate in my article, not everyone likes the way flowering quince bushes look, including famous horticulturist Michael Dirr. How about you? Do you like the way they look?
If not, we can always go back to talking about Cydonia oblonga. Did you know that "Marmalade was originally made of quince fruit"? I found that out in reading a quince marmalade recipe from Peggy Trowbridge Filippone, About.com Guide to Home Cooking.
Read article: Flowering Quince Bushes
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Photo ©2012 David Beaulieu (licensed to About, Inc.)
Comments
I have a quince.Dark orange blooms, thorns and fruit so it would be an older variety.I’ll have to check out the newer varieties.The older ones also grow wild in the woods around me.
Mine tends to fruit heavy one year and than not much for the next year or two.That’s natural for many fruiting trees/bushes.I could even out the fruiting if I pruned it but I let it be as I like the ‘rugged’ look of it.
So yes,to answer your question,I like the look but I agree with you that this is a bush that I would not suggest as a specimen planting.Or would I? Like forsythia,It’s great when in bloom but I feel it has a more interesting structure,tangled or no,and better looking leaves than forsythia so for me,quince falls into a grey area as far as a specimen.Forsythia should never be used as a specimen planting.It’s one of the most common mistakes in landscaping.
Well,great article.I’ll have to think more on it:)
Quince seems to elicit strong reactions, Scotty, whether positive or negative. As I point out in my article, Michael Dirr goes so far as to call its habit “oafish.”