Does Spitfire quince have thorns?
Related to roses, flowering quince has a thorny habit and easy-to-grow nature that makes it a good choice for barrier or border plantings. The shrub is a dense mound of gray-brown spiny twigs with five-petal flowers about 2 inches in diameter.
Is flowering quince fragrant?
Flowering quince (C. speciosa) produce simple but pretty colourful flowers in spring before their 3 inch long foliage emerges. Their 2 to 5 inch pome fruit is also fragrant and ripens in the fall. Although they are edible, they are best turned into preserves.
Does flowering quince produce fruit?
One of the first plants to bloom every year is flowering quince. Unlike its cousin, the fruiting quince (Cydonia oblonga), flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) is grown mainly for flowers, not fruit. However, some selections do bear small, hard, delightfully aromatic fruits in fall you can smell from far away.
How do you care for a flowering quince?
It prefers slightly acidic soil, up to a pH of 7.0 or less. Give it part to full sun and feed once a year, after the flowers fade, with a slow-release fertilizer. Plant your flowering quince during the winter months, while it’s dormant, in a hole twice as wide as the root ball.
Is flowering quince Evergreen?
Flowering quince are one of the first shrubs to bloom in early spring, branches loaded with blooms before they leaf out. We love using quince in mixed borders because the flowers can be appreciated when little else is happening and then it just becomes a useful dark evergreen background.
Does flowering quince attract butterflies?
Popular for its showy early spring flowers, this species is a low-growing deciduous shrub that is easy to care for. The fragrant flowers and fruit, known as quince, attract birds, bees, and butterflies.
What does flowering quince smell like?
The aroma rising from the ripe fruit has been described as ‘guava-like’, or ‘between apples and pears’, but the fruit does need to be ripe, and some people are sadly unable to smell it at all.
What do you do with flowering quince fruit?
The flowers attract bees and other pollinators, and birds and mammals may eat the fruit, with the dense bushes also making good shelter for them. In Japan, quinces, sugar, and alcohol are mixed to make a sweet-sour liqueur. The fruits can be infused in spirits, such as Japanese shochu, vodka, gin or brandy.