Featured Plants
The Japanese Flowering Quince is truly sensational: a visual wonder with branches wreathed in spring color and pungently aromatic in the fall, its spicy fruit well-suited for jams and conserves. It is native to sunny locations on hills and mountains in warm to cool temperate zones on the Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu.
A dense, low deciduous shrub with both ascending and sprawling, spiny, well-branched stems, 30-100 cm in height, and wider spread. Leaves are alternate, serrated, and ovate to obovate in shape, 2-5 cm long, falling unusually early amidst the growing season. Flower appear in clusters, concurrently with new leaves, in April and May, are hermaphroditic or staminate (male), and measure 2.5-3 cm across. Cupped, spreading petals are orbicular to widely obovate in shape with rounded apices. Pome fruits are very fragrant, globose and glabrous (smooth surfaced), yellow to greenish yellow and 3-4 cm in diameter. Their pulp is rather hard, of a whitish-yellow color and quite acidic. The ovoid, mucilaginous seeds are dark brown.
Relatively easy to grow, Japanese Flowering Quince is happy in full sun to part shade, enduring most well-drained, friable soils, and accepting considerable pruning directly after flowering.
- Sep 2012
- Aug 2012
- Oct 2011
- Apr 2010
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