Believe it or not, spring is almost here! Many varieties of bulbs are blooming — winter Daphne’s intoxicating fragrance is filling my front bed, my Cornelian cherry is about to pop open and several varieties of hellebores are in full bloom.
One of my favorite shrubs in the garden, a delightful buttercup winter hazel with its primrose yellow bells, is also about to come into full bloom. While these aforementioned bulbs are all tried-and-true early bloomers, any gardener worth their salt will agree that the true harbinger of spring goes to the flowering quince.
Japanese flowering quince is what I like to call an “old timer” shrub. It is tough as nails and can survive all over the country in temperatures down to negative 20 degrees in the winter and over 100 degrees in the summer. It will grow in full sun with adequate drainage, is drought tolerant once established, deer resistant, bug and disease free, makes a great early spring cut flower and will draw in pollinators and hummingbirds when not much else is blooming in the garden.
But it can also be a garden thug with its long thorns and tendency to spread 15 to 20 feet and grow 6 to 8 feet tall. I have seen old clumps that have literally taken over a front yard.
Now, thanks to Proven Winners, we can all enjoy a flowering quince without the fear of impaling ourselves on thorns or having to hire a backhoe to reclaim our gardens. The “Double Take” flowering quince series is a vast improvement on this old timer plant in many ways, including the color options now available.
They are thornless for starters, which is huge when it comes time to prune or even clip a branch to force for some early color. The flowers are much larger than the species, and are mostly double so they make a bigger splash in the garden or in a vase in the house. The plant is much better behaved, reaching only 3 to 5 feet tall and spreading 5 to 6 feet around, so it will fit much more easily into our smaller yards.
There are four varieties named for their colors currently on the market: “Orange,” “Peach,” “Pink” and “Scarlet.” All have flowers that are 2 to 2½ inches across with 25 to 40 petals per flower and, unlike the species, the flowers are often all the way to the tips of the branches. For a burst of early spring color, these newbies are hard to beat.
As for maintaining them in the garden, you can either do some selective thinning every spring after they bloom, which will keep them in scale with the rest of the yard, or you can plant a row of them and shear them into a hedge. Whatever you choose to do, be sure to cut a branch or two to bring into the house for an attractive center piece on the dining room table. Pick them now while they are in a tight bud stage, and they will burst open and bloom for a couple of weeks.
Typically, you will only find quince in the garden centers this time of year when they are blooming, so if you are thinking of trying one out, now is the time to go shopping. Stay safe and keep on gardening!
Steve Smith is the owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached at sunnysidenursery@msn.com.
Two free classes
Sunnyside Nursery’s free gardening classes are online for now. A “Cool Crops: Early Season Veggies” class is scheduled for 10 a.m. March 27, followed by a “Weed Control” class at 11 a.m. on March 28 via Zoom. With registration, you’ll receive a Zoom link to attend the online class. For more information or to sign up, visit www.sunnysidenursery.net/classes.
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