Ruud Kleinpaste: Tackling Japanese Quince

Chaenomeles japonica  Gardeners often have a love-hate relationship with plants, shrubs and trees - there's nothing wrong with that. For me it‘s bulbs. I love them when they flower in early spring, but hate them when I forget where they are and inadvertently dig them up. Then there are roses. Some are brilliant flower-producing specimens, but generally they’re a real bugger to prune, especially climbers, when you haven’t got a great deal of hair left on your head!  This all brings me to Japanese Quince, Chaenomeles japonica, a deciduous shrub native to Japan, related to both true quinces and Chinese quinces.  In the middle of winter, mid-July onwards, this shrub flowers a brilliant orange/red/coral. It’s a beacon that says: “Pollen right here! Nectar available” for those bugs and birds that dare to come and get it. It’s the promise that there will be a spring… at some stage.  For six weeks or so it has gorgeous flowers with yellow stamen – the look of fecundity. No leaves yet, just flowers on branches older than a year.  It’s hardy (in freezing conditions it’ll thrive) and can be grown in large pots/containers. Chaenomeles also sets fruit, usually smallish and yellow – very hard and bad eating before the frost! After frost it is softer, but still not too great, really. It’s best to use for making marmalade and jellies, and some folks create liqueurs! The fruit is seriously high in pectin and are therefore useful for preserves and jam with other fruit sources. Chinese medicine mentions arthritis and muscle cramps. 
Japanese Quince likes full sun but will also grow in part shade. Well-drained soils and preferably nutritiously fertile growing conditions. I think a hand-full of sulphate of potash in spring might be useful for flower set next winter.   The traditional red flowering variety is my favourite – it can be espaliered against a wall/fence. But that’s where my problem starts: This thing is murderously prickly. Pruning is diabolical, you need welder’s gloves! Using hedge clippers is not recommended either (the plant doesn’t like that at all – it’ll stop flowering because you cut off all the potential flowering wood for next season!). The shrub doesn’t grow that high, but it can become quite dense with branches inside the shrub. Down the road from me, near the entrance of the Halswell Quarry is a nice specimen from which I cut flowering branches in winter. I reckon they are wonderful on someone else’s property. LISTEN ABOVE

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