Talk to me about Kolkwitzia and Quince

I love Kolkwitzia but don't really have the space for a full grown one. Can it be pruned to keep it smaller or would that ruin the fountain shape?

Next question - I planted 3 flowering Quince - Chaenomeles, 1 Cameo and 2 Jet Trail last fall not so much for the flowers, but as an alternate food source for birds and critters. What is your experience with fruiting on this shrub? I've had people tell me they have never gotten fruit and I really didn't want just another ornamental.

BTW - the Jet Trail (white) might be prettier when its larger and more noticeable, but the color of Cameo is outstanding - soft orangey-pink.
Thanks pals
a

I have 2, a red one and a pink/orange one, and both have proved fruitless. They need some pruning/thinning to avoid the usual look of a tangled mass of crooked branches. I'm not sure what kind of bird would attempt eating a 2 inch/5cm long fruit. Maybe a mockingbird. For bird treats, the species crabapples work well here. So do hawthorns, in spite of their being aphid-attracting, fungi-breeding spiney small trees with flowers that smell like laundry soap of some kind.

Sooo you like the hawthorns?

I planted 2 Washington Hawthorn last fall but they are quite small.

Chaenomeles is flowering quince, I don't think any of them bear fruits. The fruit quince is genus Cydonia, so if you really want fruits this is the one you would want.

alyrics, I like Haws like I like getting a root canal. After all is said and done, they are worth it, but....

Crataegus phaenopyrum (Wash. Haws) are given away by those thieves at Arborday, what does that tell you? Still, few sights are better than spring Haws loaded with Cardinals (the birds, not the ballteam). Nothing eats the fruit until they turn black and ugly as homemade sin, but they seem important to Cardinals in the spring. The tree grows fast, tangled and thorny, not something for near a play area. Pruned branches have to be carried away, lest the stout thorns p#ss off the one who has life or death power over the plant life around your house. The leaves in the spring can get rolled up with aphids on the underside (not a factor in all years in all places). These trees are illegal in at least one state (Maine for sure, WV counties too?) because they can overwinter the green peach aphid, an important carrier for mosiac virus (netnecrosis too) in potatoes.

Overall, I would not say Haws are in the first tier of the best trees to plant, but if you have room and no legal prohibitions against planting it, then go for it. At some point in the year you will be glad you did.

yikes what an unanswerable question. I called Bluestone where I bought the original shrubs and even they didn't know about Jet Trail and Cameo. They are now offering Toyo-nishiki, which is Chaenomeles speciosa, which does fruit.

Chaenomeles is the new genus name, Cydonia was folded into it within the past few years.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, I love my Hawthorns. I must be strange. I take a toenail nipper and nip off the thorns toward the base of the tree. They don't bother me in the least any longer and I do have kids running around. It doesn't take hardly any time at all to nip of the few problem thorns every year. The blossoms in spring are very pretty and I love the winter form of these trees. Yes, they are cardinal magnets. I already had Crataegus mollis here but I received a gift of a Crataegus apiomorpha and that's out there somewhere as are a few seedling C. pedicellata and C. flabellata. Hawthorns are an invaluable species in their native range. I didn't realize they could "overwinter the green peach aphid, an important carrier for mosiac virus (netnecrosis too) in potatoes" so that would be a factor to consider if there were peach or potato farmers any where near me.

ha ha ha! Guess where I got the haws? My dad joined the Arborday Assoc or whatever it is and got the 10 little trees. I just thought they'd be better looking than the wild haws all over our property. I've cut down and pulled out countless little ones and yes, they are pretty thorny - the bigger ones I just limb up to above eye level. I've never noticed the aphid infestation but it may show tomorrow - who knows. Of course the 2 little dogwoods croaked and the other 8 trees made it. I think there are 2 crabapples, 2 laburnums, 2 hawthorns, and I forget what the other 2 were. Luckily our woods are full of dogwood and this is a beautiful year for it.

Now I'm thinking of yanking out the haws and getting some amelanchier instead. I just found an article from 1988 from Sunset Magazine and they mention that the Chaenomeles flowering quince will not fruit but cydonia will - so ecrane3 is right, but of course now I need to know which species I want.

FWIW, in our experience here hawthorns have been much more durable than most Amelanchier species, and their thorniness makes them superior bird nesting habitat. But why buy hawthorns if you already have them native there? Just select some of the most attractive and well-positioned specimens to keep, and your work is done.

Guy S.

Was it Decumbent who posted about what a beautiful spring its been for dogwoods? Here is 1 large, and 4 small behind it - you can barely see them, but they will make a nice stand in a few years.

[IMG]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/alyrics/Spring%202006/Dogwoods5-8-06001.jpg[/IMG]

Trying again

Guy,

When we moved here the former owners had let the forest move in -I surmise that the gentleman of the house may have been ill and the last few years they were here some of the maintenance didn't get done like removing the constant seedling growth. But there are many, many wild hawthorns growing yet in the woods, I just took out what was in our paths, the leach bed, and hanging over sidewalks, etc.

The other thing is that the hawthorns in our woods are all understory growth and unless they get direct sun I don't see flowers on them - hence fruit. I was hoping the amelanchier would do better fruiting in the conditions we have.

Back to the original question; Chaenomeles will fruit - though they're not dependable croppers, in my experience. My grand mother had some that fruited fairly reliably, on a yearly basis, but I rarely notice a scattered fruit here and there on Chaenomeles hedges I see around town here.
It's unlikely that ANY wildlife will utilize the fruits your Chaenomeles plants produce, if they do fruit for you. I ate them as a kid - hard, sour, somewhat astringent; you can substitute Chaenomeles fruit for that of Cydonia in various recipes requiring cooked or grated fruit.

For fruiting in understory situations you might want to try some things like native Viburnums, Ribes, and Symphoricarpos.

Guy S.

Ribes, another genus I can't figure out. I planted 2 Viburnum Blue Muffin last year, and found a wild Maple Leaf Viburnum, and several other planted but buried by grapevine- Arrowwoods that I cleared out around and sort of made more hospitable growing environments. The Blue Muffins don't look like they are going to make flowers this year, so I will know next year what to plant with them to optimize fruiting.

I have a nice ribes that is a pretty shrub but thats it - its either sterile or dioecious. It makes tiny clusters of greenish flowers that don't set fruit. I believe OH did not permit selling ribes for a while because of a rust that it harbored. We never see it for sale here, although I heard that the moratorium had been lifted.

I really like the symphoricarpus so maybe I'll try that.