Flowering quinces are tough garden shrubs with delicate-looking flowers that bring some much-needed bright colour to early spring
WORDS MAT REESE PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS
Flowering quinces are deservedly popular throughout the UK. Their early flowering season and habit of behaving well in a pot make them useful plants for spring, bringing bright colour to the garden at a time when few other shrubs look quite as good. Their relatively robust flowers add to their value and appeal when cold-weather conditions might otherwise blemish more delicate early blooms (think camellias).
Once established, they are steadfast, almost unkillable, garden plants that need little attention, save a light prune. Caerhays Castle in Cornwall has a wonderful specimen of Chaenomeles japonica, which has been growing for more than a century. However, with a slow-growing habit, they can sometimes succumb to being swamped by more vigorous plants.
The genus Chaenomeles is made up of four species native to mountain woodlands in China and Japan. It is closely allied with the common quince, Cydonia oblonga, and the two genera were at one time combined, and are sometimes still confused. The easiest way to separate the two genera is to look at the leaves and fruit. Unlike Cydonia, Chaenomeles has toothed leaves, styles fused at the flower base and a glabrous, deciduous calyx.
Of the three Chaenomeles species in cultivation, Chaenomeles japonica and Chaenomeles speciosa are most commonly seen in gardens and make excellent shrubs. Chaenomeles japonica has orange-scarlet flowers, a spreading habit, and rarely exceeds more than 90cm in height.
Chaenomeles speciosa makes a larger shrub to 1.8m. This species accounts for the lion’s share of cultivars available to gardeners and can be found in a staggering array of colours and forms. Indeed, the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts lists more than 150 selections in its collection. The brilliant-red and gold combination is very smart, and the restrained and beautiful simplicity of the blooms against the bare wood was captured by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in his watercolour Japonica. An excellent cultivar for the garden is Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Rubra Grandiflora’, which produces large, single flowers from March into May. At Ness Botanic Gardens, near Liverpool, Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Aurora’ can always be relied upon for an early appearance, with th
