Why won't my flowering quince flower?

I'm thinking of digging it up and giving it away! I got this as a twig (in a trade) 4 years ago. It's over 4' tall and in good health. The person who traded it to me said the parent plant flowered red. Heavens, I don't care if it flowers puke green--I'd just like to see it flower!

Does it need something special in the way of nutrition? It gets over 8 hrs. of sun, daily. What am I doing wrong???
Diane

Give it one more chance come spring.
Quince flowers in the spring like forsythia and probably doesn't require much in the way of fertilizer. tho, that shouldn't keep it from flowering either way.
By the time its four yrs old I would have expected it to bloom also.

It's really frustrating! OK, I'll be patient until the forsythias are finished blooming next spring...or until I can find out what I'm doing wrong and can correct it. But it's outa here if there is no bloom, next year!

Thanks for responding!
Diane

I've had my fair share of tree issues out here. I had a few Quince and mine weren't flowering either. No flower means no fruit. I had an arborist out here to help me identify a few problems with other trees and shrubs and while he was here he had a look at my Quince. He did a few soil tests and said the area where I had them planted was far too alkaline and that I needed to ammend the soil if I wanted them to bloom. He took care of that and the year after, they bloomed. Maybe you could test your soil just for the heck of it and see if you don't have the same problem. Just a thought. The botanical name of this plant is Cydonia oblonga if you want to do a search to see if there is any information on the Internet as to why your plant isn't blooming otherwise I'd do like bloomswithaview said and give it another chance.

Hi Equilibrium!
Alkaline soil, huh? We have clay, here--don't know if it's alkaline or not but that should be easy enough to test.

How did the fella amend your soil, do you remember? If I knew what to use, it'd be easier still to just try that! It's a pretty plant but it isn't gonna keep its place in the backyard if it doesn't start pullin' its weight!!

Thanks for the ideas!
Diane

baled peat moss is one easy way to add a little acid to the soil. Oak leaf compost is good too.

White pine needles is another.

The man used a box product to amend my soil but I don't recall what it was. Sorry about that one. I normally have notes but I don't see where I kept a record of what was done. That'll teach me!

To the point on taxonomy, the "true" Flowering Quince is the Chaenomeles sp. The common name for Cydonia oblonga is (among other things) Common Quince. Common Quince is the last remaining member of the Cydonia genus - all other Cydonia species have been moved (apparently recently) to the Chaenomeles sp. The two genera are closely related.

OK--one of these:
Oak leaf compost
Baled peat moss
White pine needles

I'll try the garden center to see what they have. It's worth a try! After nursing this thing from a twig to a good-sized bush I'd like to keep it and see it bloom.

Carter, I read the article on the taxonomy. Thanks for leading me to the info. I see how folks get interested in all of the important name issues on plants, but I must admit that much of it is lost on me. My common quince won't bloom. If I tell it that it is a common anything, it may get its little feelings hurt and NEVER put forth blooms. If I tell it that it is the lonely-only in the cydonia genus, it may try to jump ship for lack of company. ;) This is one of those times when I'm going to keep what I now know to myself. Yep. I'm not going to tell my quince a thing...but maybe it already KNOWS?! Maybe it's aware of the recent abandonment and is refusing to bloom on principle! I know I'd be pretty upset if everyone moved away from ME! This revelation is a Pandora's Box.

A plan has just hatched! I need to get a mate for this lonely bush so it doesn't feel so abandoned. I mean, if all of the other varieties of former genus namesakes are gone, that doesn't mean that it is alone. There are plenty of other bushes bearing the same name as this poor, lonely bush of mine. I just need to find one willing to relocate to the vicinity of my bush. I could put a singles ad into the nursery news: Young, single Cydonia Oblonga looking for the company of same (any gender) for enjoying the Rocky Mt. sunshine, holding branches in the rain and cuddling and snoozing during the long, cold winters. Must be willing to uproot self and move to Colorado. Please send picture to gardenColorado@aol.com

Keep smiling, and blooming:)
Diane

ROTFLMAO!

OK- don't go and pay for anything. Look around and see if any of your neighbors have oak or white pine trees. You don't need much more than a few inches around the base of the tree. Consider this a mission. You need to grab a few tall kitchen garden bags and fill them. You can mix the two. If your mission fails... then go and buy bailed sphagnum.

And, Carter's correct but alas... I had but only the poor lowly commoner of Quinces. Bad news for you is that what I think Carter is saying is that your quince may not be a species that flowers. I didn't know there were any that didn't flower but anything seems to go these days. You know they might even have developed a non flowering Quince for all those quince aficionados out there who just can't stand those pesky blossoms in spring. In all seriousness, not that I like to be all that serious, I am relatively sure I could send you a small Quince. Probably not a good idea to send it out bareroot at this time of year but if you are really feeling as if your "young single Cydonia Oblonga" is incapable of setting down roots with out the companionship of his/her own kind, I would be more than happy to dig one up that I germinated from seed last year. Sheesh, if I leave it here the deer will probably browse it down to a nub anyway.

Since I don't know how people do those neat quotes in the blue boxes, here's my quoting:

"You know they might even have developed a non flowering Quince for all those quince aficionados out there who just can't stand those pesky blossoms in spring"

Now it's my turn to ROTFL! What a hoot!!! Darned pesky blossoms!

So I shouldn't buy the needles, leaves or bales. HMMMmmm. Yep, I can see myself with a cute black lawn & leaf bag sneaking up on unsuspecting white pines and oak trees and shaking their needles and leaves off! Is this something I'd have better luck doing under the dark of night? You know, cloak and digger, I mean dagger, sorta stuff? Maybe I'd better change the batteries on my flashlight before I get started, huh? Let me think awhile about all the twists and turns this scenario might have....

Do you have any pictures of your young, single quince seedling??? ;)
Diane

Diane, go for it in broad daylight. All you have to do is ask and most people will indulge your eccentricity. Now arm yourself with your cute black lawn & leaf bag and off you go to gather. By the way, you'd be even cuter if you went out in your bathrobe. I did that once last fall to take the kids to school. I wasn't feeling well and figured just this once. I often walk around the yard fiddling or fussing with this or that in my bathrobe but I was never so bold as to hop in a car but I wasn't feeling all that well and like I said... just this once and then I could come right home and hop in bed to take a nap. Well, on the way home I spotted some nice bagged leaves that would be really great for mulching some ferns I had so I hopped out and put a few bags in my car. Gosh, I love curb side leaf collection and the people who set them out even bag them, no mess! I drove a few more blocks and spotted even nicer leaves- these people owned a mulching lawn mover and their leaves were already partially broken down. Well, I just had to have all of those bags too. Before I knew it, the entire interior of the car was filled with bags of leaves. That's why I never saw the nice police officer parked waiting for some idiot just like me to roll through the newly installed stop sign. The nice police officer let me go when I rolled through that brand new stop sign the had placed a few blocks from my house. The audacity of them to put up a stop sign the week before and then sit there waiting for poor unsuspecting leaf collectors in pajamas and a bathrobe!

Diane, you can't do worse than me. Go get your leaves or white pine needles and save yourself some $$$.

ROFLMBO great story I can relate to that

I've gone out and collected pinyon pine and juniper needles from the wild and have collected neighbors grass clippings right out of their garbage cans. teehee ~Blooms

Lol, no, I wasn't saying your's is a Common Quince or that it is a type that doesn't flower. I was simply replying to the name issue. More to the point, I was saying if your's is supposed to be the Flowering Quince then it is in the Chaenomeles sp., not Cydonia. Both flower, as far as I know. Chaenomeles have different color flowers, depending on variety or species ranging between white, pink, orange, and red (there's even a rare variety that will have mulit colored flowers ranging white to pink to red). Cydonia oblonga is supposed to have white flowers.

So, you should be getting flowers, regardless the type you have. But you're right... maybe your's just needs a "special" friend!

Hi Carter, so you think her Quince needs a friend huh? Guess I better go out and take a photo of my little suitor for her. Ugh, temps dropped down to 29F last night and frost is still on the ground in the shadows. Suppose I'll have to get dressed for this one! Had to do that sooner or later anyway but was too busy doing laundry.

I was kidding on the "friend" issue - it should flower regardless. Now, to produce fruit, it may need a special friend... ;)

Hey, used coffee grounds add acid to the soil too.

Still chuckling about the turns this question has taken;) I've got TONS of coffee grounds (usually feed it to the redworms). I'll take some to the lonely quince and hope for a blooming spring!
Thanks!
Diane

This is what I have:
http://www.paghat.com/quince.html
and I'll send you a sprout of it if Equilibrium or someone 'splains exactly how and when to do so. :)

Also, I was hoping this bush was an Ohio native, but fat chance, eh? Looks like it's an Asian native. Oh, well. It flowers well every spring, and it's under a massive oak tree.

Ha, another native plant lover. Don't fret the origin on this plant. It's not invasive to the best of my knowledge anywhere around here and most propbably not in your area either. And yes, you can clone quince.

Say RC, what else you got growing under that oak?

Um... *blushing and averting eyes* a bunch of hostas. :)

But by God the rest of my gardens are native!!

He he he... you crack me up! "*blushing and averting eyes*"! Too funny. I have a lot more over here than just hostas. I have removed everything that I planted that was invasive though. I am still working on getting rid of some English Ivy that keeps resprouting to mock me but other than that, I'm good to go and down to the well behaved plants I love that are exotic such as iris, daylilies, and such. Learning the difference was very costly though. Which hostas do you have or don't you know? I used to know which ones were which because I had utility marker flags that denoted what was what but the flags were pulled up by a kid. Now I take a guess on what was planted where. Shame I need some sort of a memory enhancer as the Loyalists are starting to look like the Patriots are starting to look like who knows what around here anymore. Some day I will figure it out. No great rush.

Let's see, I have the green-and-white ones, and the plain green ones, and the light green ones, and the really big green ones. Frankly *huh -- blows on nails* I can tell them apart on sight. :)

LOL

Sounds like what I've got only add white and green ones to the green and white ones you've got. I do have some nice invoices that tell me what I actually have somewhere in this mess around here. Does that count for anything? Blowing on stubs as nails are gone from planting bulbs again.

Hi Darius you sweetheart! Are you in your new place yet? I think about you a lot when I am online.

No, not moved yet. Lease starts Oct. 15. I have paint in my truck and need to get my fanny in gear and out there to put it on the walls for it to be very effective. Unfortunately, inertia has set in.

Ahhh... inertia. I can relate to that. It settles in here a lot too.

RC, your pic is of my plant...only mine is naked as a jay-bird during blooming season!! sigh. If the coffee grounds don't work, I may send it to YOU so that it will be with one of its own kind? It has pretty leaves (is that like saying the blind date you've arranged for your brother has a nice personality)?

Darius, good luck with your move! Paint is an option that can be added anytime;)

Equilibrium, the roots of your ivy are sprouting vines in my yard!!! I wondered where they were coming from! Darned, invasive, non-blooming, tree-smothering ivy vines...I'd be more tolerant if the crazy things bloomed! That brings us nearly full-circle to why this whole thread started, doesn't it???
Diane

Hmmmm, IL to CO.... not a stretch for ivy by any means. Nasty evil virtually impossible to eradicate ivy. You know I saw an entire web site devoted exclusivley to the removal of ivy. It was the "Stop Ivy League" or something similar. We must not be the only people struggling with this raunchy plant. I stuck about 100 plugs in the ground out front. Thank goodness it was contained by sidewalks. This past spring I noticed my sidewalks were actually heaved. Incredibly, the ivy did it when it was trying to make a run for my front lawn. Oh this is the epitome of the plant that I wish I had never planted.

Diane -- hee hee! Yeah, it's just like that. "It has pretty leaves..." read: "She has such a nice complexion." You might as well announce that she weighs 450 pounds.

I really thought it was pretty when I planted it too. I was also told it would fill in quick. Those leaves are so classic looking I recall thinking why not. Well, now I know. Within 3 years some of the vines were almost half the size of my wrist. Still laughing at your pretty leaves/nice complexion analogy.

Vines appear to be my personal burden in life. They don't behave like the tag says they will, ever. I have a clematis that hasn't flowered in four years, but grows everywhere, like kudzu. What's up with that? This summer I finally ripped a fistful of it off and shook it in the faces of the nursery staff members who sold it to me. Oh yes, they said, that's clematis blahblahblahblah, it blooms profusely from June through frost. Yeah, and I'm Mae West.

Oh Equ, I know you're going to ask its name... give me some time to look it up again. I did a whole search on it this summer and recently got so disgusted I pitched all the files.:)

RockCity- What is the name of your vine?
Is this called rubbing salt into a wound?

HAHAHAHA!!! Rock salt for RC? That chuckle really ROCKS (as my younger teen would say;) Sorry...not that p(h)unny.

When we moved into this house (nearly 6 yrs. ago), there was nothing but lawn with rock edging...and a single ivy vine that the owners (who'd bought it new 4 yrs. before) had planted. I've planted TONS of stuff but the ivy is determined to kill it off. It's me against the ivy--every time I pull a root I think, "Score one for ME!" It promptly puts up two starts and glibly thinks (and I KNOW it's thinking this, I am NOT paranoid), "Yeah...but score TWO for me!"

RC, I have some of the same clematis, too! Mine is a huge vine on the back fence...but I have to admit to seeing 3 blooms, at last! Very pretty. I'm hoping that it will be more generous, next year. If not, you'll see a thread about it! :)
Please don't tell your quince that we are matchmaking, yet. I don't want mine to get the idea that it will be rewarded for not blooming, next spring...even it it DOES have nice leaves;)
Diane

I'm all to easily amused... I thought it was funny.

Here's a thought for you Diane- would you consider getting one of those stamp licker bottles from Home Depot or Office Max? They cost less than a dollar and they look like the old shoe polish bottles. You can add full strength BrushBGon to the stamp licker bottle and you can flit through the area with the vine sponging the deadly chemical onto the underside of the ivy. The top of the leaves are very waxy and they repel chemicals but new growth and the undersides of leaves are a little less resistent. Now you need to go out and do this right around lunch time when those ivies are photosynthesizing their beastly little hearts out so they suck up all that nice full strength BrushBGon. I'm not saying this is a perfect method but it has helped me considerably and all I am dealing with is resprouts now.

Ladies!
On Your Mark!
Get Ready!
Stamp Licker Bottles filled!
Go!

Death to English Ivy! Hear hear!

Being English I know all about English Ivy. Its almost impossible to get rid of, each tiny fragment of root takes off for the sky and its also the very devil to kill - we had one in cornwall that I swear had sent its roots to Australia - dig as I might I never got to the bottom of them and the more brush killer I poured on it the more it grew! It ruins brickwork too thos little suckery things take hold and pull bits off and it works its way under wood siding and carries on growing inside the wall. It goes white cos there no light but it still keeps growing! Hate it!

You ladies are out of control! :) It's true, Diane -- English ivy is a sentient being, capable of not only thought but SPITE. I love your blotter idea, Equ -- are you sure it doesn't just make it mad?

Still looking for that clematis name.

The sponge applicator keeps the chemical contained and allows you to make sure it goes where you want it to go. It's been killing off the new shoots quite well actually. I don't want to spray as I risk over spray with the slightest of air currents. So far, this is about all that has worked for me. When I used RoundUp, the ivy all but laughed and spit in my face. The BrushBGon has been working. I do need to be on the lookout for new growth though. I figure by this time next year, it should be eradicated. Emphasis being on the word "should".

Shaker of salt is being waved in the air.

HAHAHA! Sentient being, capable of spitting AND spite (OK--it ALL BUT spit for Equil)! Roots to Australia and feeding on BrushBGon in its native habitat!!

SHHhhh...it's just outside this window. Do you think it can READ?! If so, I'm TOAST...and my property will soon be buried under waxy leaves and twining vines! First, it will cut the phone lines to keep us from calling for help....

On a serious note,the sponge bottles sound perfect. I was using roundup and a paintbrush (if the sponge bottle works, I'll hand my paintbrush over to Darius)! :)
Diane

Ugh mtnmama... no shouting while typing... the ivy lives and it breathes and it is all knowing. Hush child hush!

Paintbrushes work well for stumps where you would want a little dribble to go down the sides but dribble on the ground around the ivy is not so great of an idea because of any critters that may be around.

And, I think this is the web site I found a few years ago but I'm not sure because it appears to have had a face lift-
http://www.ivyleagueinvasion.net/index2.html