Chaenomeles, aka flowering quince. I doubt the fruit failed to mature due to lack of watering. They fruit do not get very large and remain hard. Although you can make jelly out of them most people consider them not worth eating. But you're right about the apple similarity. Both plants are in the Rosaceae family.

Just for future reference if you need any more ids it is most helpful to show leaves, buds, bark and twigs as well as flowers and to give a sense of scale. Luckily this one was easy but often we need all the clues we can get.

sure was.. even i recognized it ... lol ... its the very unique salmon color i think ...

it will NEVER need water ...

you can.. run it over with a truck if you wish ...

it has long hidden thorns...

and it should be rejuvenated once in a while of you want it to stay a reasonable size ...

and God help me.. it wont ever need food or fert either ... crikey.. you cant kill it if you want to ... lol ...

as to why it aborted the useless fruit... who knows.. cold snap.. lack of pollination .. buds damage over winter ... combination of all .. whatever ...

mine.. with the flower that looks like that.. produced useless.. kryton hard apple looking fruit that are good for nothing.. it is NOT the version.. that one would make jelly out of ... as flora pointed out in my post early last spring ...

a favorite of mine for being one of the first blooms in very early spring... in MI ... and it rather unique color.. especially.. that time of year ... there are summer plants with flowers that color... but not spring...

since i will be waiting until mid to late april form mine to bloom.. i am sorry to report.. that if it is blooming for you.. right now.. in the US.. i hate you .. and will laugh about it in God help me.. 4 months.. when mine blooms ... i got a real hate on for winter right now.. lol... but i think i digress

ken

"it is NOT the version.. that one would make jelly out of ... as flora pointed out in my post early last spring .."

Ken, you've got it round your neck yet again ;-) You CAN make jelly out of these, even though they are rock hard and not true quinces. I'm happy to repeat this information every spring until one of us snuffs it. Enjoy your weather.... They're predicting an inch of snow here later this week - we're all panicking. I'm hoping they close school.

You've seen this already but here's a Chaenomeles fruit from my plant beside a (rather small) Golden delicious and a Medlar.

Sorry its taken me so long to reply, its been a crazy month, but thank you so much for all of your help, ken_adrian the blooms really are spectacular in my opinion, such a beautiful salmon color, and I think at one point our home owner tried to kill it by just cutting it to the ground, little did he know it would be so persistent and resilient, I'm glad for that because now I can still enjoy it. Our winter here has been truly bizarre, in fact we are already in spring here and have been for a couple of weeks, everything is blooming and growing like crazy, that was by far the shortest winter I can ever remember. floral_uk thankyou so much for the pictures, and regarding the jelly how does it taste? Is it worth going to the trouble to make?

The jelly tastes fairly mild but is essentially very similar in taste to true quince jelly. Maybe sharper. It's designed to serve with savoury foods like cold meats, not to make a sweet filling. As long as you don't squeeze the jelly bag, which makes the juice go cloudy, it is a clear delicate pink colour.