flowering quince

Photo: Abraham Jacobus Wendel — Public domain · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Grown mainly for its dramatic early spring blossom, with fruit that's hard, sour and astringent fresh off the shrub — cooked into jelly, jam or a sharp, quince-like preserve, closer to true quince than to an eating apple.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Shrub 1.5–3 m, wide-spreading and often wall-trained

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Central and southern China, Tibet and Burma, at 200–1,700 m in hill scrub and woodland.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

20–40 cm/year — medium.

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, simple, oval to oblong, 3–9 cm long, glossy dark green with a finely and sharply serrate margin, on stout spiny stems.

Root system

Shallow, fibrous and suckering, spreading into a dense thorny clump over time.

Fruit description

Rounded to egg-shaped greenish-yellow pomes 4–7 cm across, hard and astringent raw but strongly perfumed; used cooked for jelly and preserves, or simply set in a bowl to scent a room.

Propagation

Semi-ripe cuttings in summer, or division of rooted suckers. Seed needs about three months cold stratification but gives variable plants. ⚠ Raise two genetically distinct plants — cuttings off one bush are a single clone and cannot cross-pollinate.

Pollination

Partially self-fertile — better with a 2nd plant

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.