Don't know this particular variety, but some years back I planted a Texas Scarlet, also supposed to be 3-4 feet tall and wide and guaranteed not to sucker. Well, after about 6 years it took off and after several years of trying to control it, I decided to get rid of it. Two seasons of spraying Round up with Poison Ivy control (for woody plants) it's still not completely given up the ghost--those suckers, some even 5 feet from the original plant--are still coming on.

lacey.. stump killing with roundup is NOT a spray thing.. the label says application at 100% ...

and i use an applicator like at the link ... precise application of a a thin bead on the cambian ... think dollar store ... and waste the product ...

i have just a plain old coral flowered quince ... quite painful and bloody if i ride by at speed on the lawnmower.. and clip one of those 2 inch thorns ...

and it gets really ugly ... the older it gets ..

but truly a plant.. that needs to be kept up on with renovation pruning ... removing 1/3 of the plant.. every other year or so ...

the color.. is early... in the garden.. and frankly.. sublime ... not much like it.. a coral salmon color ... which is NOT really helpful to you with your named variety ...

i say go for it.. and root me a piece.. if thats possible.. lol .. [i didnt look if its patented...]

oh.. and if i had to sum up quince.. a sublime early bloomer.. and a rather ugly bush the rest of the season ... lol.. as you know.. every treasure has its season .. in my garden anyway ... but then with 5 acres.. i can ignore ugly bushes for the rest of the year ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: its the applicator not the brand name

I have a 6 1/2 acre farm which I am developing into a wildlife habitat. I love the flowering quince, it blooms before most things, it's easy to start from a cutting and really pretty! (Mine is red.)

Ours are several years old and I just had the first fruit on the oldest one, which something ate, not sure what but glad something liked it.

You will need space for the regular Quince, mine are about 6 ft tall and 4 feet wide. No torns but sort of sticky to touch, the birds like to set in them for protection from the hawks.

Hope this helps,
Martha

I don't grow 'Double Take', but I do have a 'Jet Trail'. It doesn't get taller than 4' and has creamy white flowers in the spring and has little if any fruit or thorns. Most of the year it is just a green lump that always looks like a bad hair day. I actually prefer the tall old-fashioned orange ones as far as growth habit I think. It has spread some from rooting where branch tips touch. It is tolerant of being next to where the plow runs to clear the driveway and getting no extra water during the growing season.

I am thinking of moving it (or actually moving one of the suckers and killing the original) from part of the foundation planting to a more out of the way place where I will enjoy it when it is blooming and don't have to look at it much when it's not. If I were to need a plant with a similar bloom time, I wouldn't buy it again. I'd suggest finding a relatively mature one (or at least a bunch of photos of mature ones) and looking at it out of bloom season to decide.

I have Chaenomeles x superba 'Crimson and Gold' as a wall shrub. It is perfectly behaved. To me the lack of fruit would be a disadvantage. They smell lovely, make great jelly, add flavour to an apple pie and look beautiful.

Thanks all.

For now, it stays on my list of "plants to maybe purchase" in the spring, but I'll continue to do more research. All the info I've read so far only talks about the flowers - how big they are, how wonderful they are, etc. No mention of the shrub itself, so the comment about its appearance is worth taking into consideration. It matches other comments I've read elsewhere.

Ken - if it does turn out to be a decent plant, I would be happy to send you one. It might take a while, but I'm pretty good about remembering things like this. And yes, I think it is patented, but I believe that only applies to propagation with the intent of selling.

There's even a video about this plant. Check link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Quince

First off, I don't have any of the quinces from the "Double Take/Storm" series, though I have read about them. They should be fairly thorn less, though I wouldn't be surprised if you found an odd sticker here and there. Same with the fruit. I have found it can take flowering quince a number of years to mature and "settle in" before you will be able to see how much fruit that type will produce in general. My 'Cameo' has been planted a few years- so far no fruit at all, while 'Moned' produced one or two in the early years and now (seven years planted) is loaded yearly.

I personally love flowering quinces and can come up with a number of positives about them. I've got three kinds ('Toyo-Nishiki' in addition to the above mentioned cultivars) and might have more if I had unlimited space to play around with ;-) One of those shrub I always look forward to seeing bloom in the spring.

So far they have been slow growing -'Moned' is maybe 4x4 now. They are fairly drought tolerant once established and have even done well under/very near trees, including a maple. Sure they aren�t terribly interesting after bloom, although I wouldn�t call them hideous (I would reserve that for my personal nemesis, Potentilla, LOL). I can kind of see what you mean from the whole design standpoint. To my eye, flowering quince do have a "wild" look to them, which fits in my yard but might not in a more tidy, maintained sort of surrounding.

One more positive (yep, might be trying to convince you and make a Chaenomeles lover of you ;-D), they
are stellar in bloom.

My 'Moned� with ribbon grass:
CMK

CMK

Thanks for the photo. There are lots and lots of photos online of individual flowers, but not all that many of the entire shrub. I think you may have convinced me to try it.

I really don't mind a shrub that is not gorgeous, gorgeous every second of the year. After all, this one is not really that large and my garden is pretty casual, so I think it may work. Let's face it lilacs are not all that attractive and almost everyone grows them because of the flowers and rightly so.

Now I just have to figure out which color I want. I'm leaning towards the orange.

Kevin

let me clarify a few things ..

mine is not covered in thorns.. just an errant one here and there.. that gets you when you are renovating.. or as i said.. not paying attention at speed ... you only need to be scarred once ....

you said: but I'm pretty good about remembering things like this. ==>> not me.. lol .. wont remember a thing about this.. and when i get an email under your non-GW name.. wont have a clue who the heck you are.. lol ...

oh.. and the fruit ... not much to write home about.. but apparently the type of fruit that 50 pounds of sugar can turn into a jelly.. i often joke .. if i put my work shoe into 50 pounds of sugar.. we could make an interesting jelly out of it.. lol ... they are like a small rock hard green apple.. and you better have good teeth to try to bite into one.. and have plenty of space to spit it out.. perhaps not something you want to try.. in front of the tv .. lol ...

ken

Ken - have you ever made or eaten Chaenomeles jelly? It takes only the standard pound of sugar to pint of juice and it tastes excellent. They are not meant to be eaten raw. They are not green when ripe but a lovely gold often flecked with red.

Why are so many people afraid of any shrub which isn't spherical and stunted, which has a natural style of growth and has natural functions ie its leaves fall, it may have thorns, it produces fruit and it doesn't look exactly the same all year round?

i figured i would flush out someone from the other side of the pond .... with my rant on taste.. lol ..

i think the form is fine.. just giving warning to those who might expect otherwise for a small suburban garden ...

ken

I know I'm late on responding to your post, but I just wanted to say that Quince shrubs don't have to look "wild" if you just keep them neatly trimmed. They can provide a very nice hedge if pruned correctly, and that hedge will absolutely "pop" in the Spring when the quinces are in bloom. Below is a link to a photo of a neatly trimmed quince. It is a 'Texas Scarlet' which is very similar to a 'Double Take Scarlet Storm.'

Here is a link that might be useful: A well-trimmed flowering quince shrub

plantingman

Those photos are lovely and yes, the shrubs do look very presentable. I ordered my 'Double Take' and will give it a couple of years to see how I like it. I was contemplating using these as a hedge, but decided to try one first to see if it really is almost thornless. The hedge is going to be right next to a public sidewalk and I didn't want to take the chance of planting something potentially deadly to passersby.

Kevin

Well, let us know, through this post, if your Double Take has any thorns. I'm also considering planting one as a foundation plant, but like you, I want to avoid a lot of painful thorns.

Well hey, Flora, me too, exact same cultivar - just getting a few fat buds right now. Mine is also wall shrub but grows next to the black stained timber arbour which supports a miffy Zephirine Drouhin rose. The clear and bright green foliage and the vivid blossom, looks fabulously oriental (truly Japanese looking) against black wood. I love the unruly but supremely architectural shape of the gnarly branches (especially after judicial tying and bending). One of my annual highlights.

I find that the perfect place to plant a flowering Quince or other early-blooming, mid-sized shrub that doesn't add very much ornamental value to the garden when not in bloom: is behind a large ornamental grass. The Quince is in bloom when the grass is still very low to the ground. When the grass grows tall and it's in its full glory, it doesn't bother me that I can no longer see the Quince, which is no longer in bloom.

When it comes to the "ornamental value" of a plant, a plant's beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. What some people consider ugly or oafish, someone else may find beautiful and interesting.
I agree with with campanula's comment that the Double Take Flowering Quince's branching pattern has a "supremely architectural shape" to it. There is a flowering quince, I believe a 'Texas Scarlet,' growing as a foundation shrub on the south side of an insurance building not too far from my house. I really admire its branching pattern and the texture of its foliage as much as its flowers. It's kind of crammed into a spot that is way too small for it, and receives morning shade, but it doesn't seemed stressed at all.

I grow the double take orange and red and the flowers are really great, but then once they are done there isn't much to the shrubs themselves. Not bad, but not particularly outstanding by any means either. I would use one here or there for a splash of early color but wouldn't do a whole hedge.

I've heard reports that most years flowering quince looses all of its foliage by the end of August due to fungus. It doesn't kill the plant but just defoliates it most years. Has anyone else heard or seen this?

I recently read that most years flowering quince loose all their leaves by the end of August due to fungus'. Has anyone else heard or seen this? Perhaps it just pertains to the older cultivars that were planted and forgotten back in the good ol' days?

I had bought one from the clearance rack at Lowes earlier this year and put in the ground. It hasnt done much, since the flowers withered away - there was one flower that bloomed as recently as a couple of weeks ago.
I am looking forward to the flowers next spring.
Kevin - hows your plant doing?

I was interested in the flowering quince, but I have since changed my mind. They are beautiful when they bloom, but once they are done blooming they really have no aesthetic appeal. When they are older they look like big messy masses of leaves and wiry twigs.

Dr. Michael Dirr is one of this bush's famous detractors. In the Chaenomeles speciosa entry in "Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees & Shrubs," we find the following descriptions of flowering quince shrubs (p.180):

â¢The habit is "oafish"
â¢It produces a "tangled mass of stems"
â¢It can become a "hummocky mass"

All of which leads to his suggestion that the bush be pruned frequently.

My plant was small when I received it this spring - maybe 8 inches or so tall and hasn't grown all that much - maybe 3-4 inches. That doesn't alarm me since the other small shrubs I purchased at the same time haven't grown very much either. I assume, the first year they're probably putting down a good root system.

I does appear to have gotten that leaf fungal infection mentioned above. Some leave are kind of curled with brown spots, but it didn't drop all its leaves.

In any case, it's far too early for me to pass judgement of any kind. Maybe in a few years, but not now. I just have to remember to protect it this winter from the rabbits or there will probably be nothing to pass judgement on.

Kevin

I have a big old one (from pics looks like texas scarlet red) that grows in a rock wall and has spread to my neighbors embankment. Crazy place for a plant to grow but I have a few oddities created when the house was dug out to convert to public sewer, old bulbs and bushes grew the next spring in funny places. It's rather cool actually.

I sometimes have a second flush of flowers. I think a little wild form can be a good thing.

Just one caution. I haven't tried any of the new cultivars but I did have an old Quince that we removed and it was one of the worst shrubs we dug out when we removed all the shrubs in 2007. So if you really like it, put it where you don't want to move it and if you are half hearted about it, take it out while it is still small.

Here's my double orange storm

Close up

Flowers opened

That's pretty.
I'm still waiting to see if mine made it through its first winter. The snow is finally almost gone, but it's still to wet to walk around out there. I can see the leafless twigs through the window, but that doesn't tell me much. To top it off, maybe 10 inches of snow tomorrow, so it will once again disappear for a while.

Kevin

Hope yours made it through the winter.
Here's a picture from this morning

Looking for tips about the double take scarlet quince. The leaves have started to curl (but are still green, with some brown spots) and the flowers aren't happy. Could it be because I just took it out of its container and planted into the ground?

1) I've recently fertilized, but did not apply too much - according to the directions.

2) I'd find it hard to believe I'm overwatering. I just drenched the roots, so hopefully, I'm heading in the right direction.

Thanks!!!!

I have had mine for 6 years now , though it’s a beautiful shrub it offers nothing for pollinators , birds or wildlife it’s only pretty when it blooms . Although the shrub is pretty after blooming , there is no fall leaves color just pretty in spring . Since I planted this shrub I started to garden with native plants , I added over 7,000 square feet of native plants , there is way better beneficial native shrubs that will offer pollen , nectar sometimes fruits or seeds and can be a host plant for moths and butterflies which will feed baby birds . I could suggest some species but I need your state , it’s always better to plant for your region . The plant is located in my retaining wall , it suckers a little bit but it’s easy to prune , there is no thorns , we redid this a few months ago I removed the entire non native plants and this area will be ready to plant all native species grown from seeds , purchased from Prairie Moon Nursery . Our pollinators and wildlife needs us , better add beneficial plants .

Brigitte, other than the fact you are posting to an extremely outdated thread, there are some big flaws in your presentation. Flowering quince ARE attractive to pollinators - they are a food source for certain butterfly larvae, they attract bees and because they are such early bloomers, they attract overwintering hummingbirds, common in my area.

And while the use of native plants is a good thing, it is not always a smart thing. Native plants did not grow up in cultivated gardens and they do not always thrive in garden conditions. I can list several plants native to my area that simply will not grow in a cultivated setting and many others that require rather specific conditions to thrive. Plus, not everyone wants to garden with only native species. Many non-natives are far more attractive and garden worthy than only local natives and despite what you may read to the contrary, they also attract plenty of pollinators and wildlife.

What you choose to plant in your garden is your choice - let others have the same freedom of selection without offering demeaning, disparaging and sometimes inaccurate comments.

It's an old argument, between those that don't see the point of bringing up old threads and those who don't have a problem with it. I am in the camp of not having a problem with it. Also I'd like to point out, that Houzz often places links to these old threads next to current threads and people click on them without realizing how old they are.

That being said, I have to agree with GGal on the subject of natives. I was an organic garden 40 years ago, when few people knew what organic gardening was all about. Protecting, supporting and nurturing the ecology of your little garden corner of the world. And going along those lines, I also became very interested in growing native and started to buy a lot of them. 20 years Later, I still have many natives in my garden that have performed well, but I also have replaced or lost many others. Including two types of native trees that were expensive to lose. So my own personal experience supports each point that GGal made.

It must be exciting to discover all the benefits that native plantings have in the wild and quite a project to devote yourself to replace everything in your garden with all natives. I would find it interesting to follow along with your progress and see how it all works out, so I hope you share your experiences in the forums. But… these statements that you made, provoke conflict.

“…there is way better beneficial native shrubs that will offer pollen, nectar, sometimes fruits or seeds and can be a host plant for moths and butterflies which will feed baby birds.” Implying that non-native plants do not?

“I could suggest some species but I need your state, it’s always better to plant for your region.”

“Our pollinators and wildlife needs us, better add beneficial plants.”

You sound like you are ready to set up your own seminar on natives right here in the forums and you are all ready to help us uninformed gardeners to get on board. Evidently you believe that you are doing the right thing for pollinators and wildlife and if we are not doing what you are doing then we are not.

To say that ‘natives will ALWAYS be more beneficial in general’ That statement has been proven to be untrue by a number of people in these forum including myself. That’s a fact, not an opinion. We all want to support pollinators, but a native plant that won’t grow in your garden, does nothing for anyone. And there are many non native plants that provide what pollinators need.

I’m always interested to hear about a new plant that someone is in love with and why. So any time you want to share how happy a plant is making you….do that. If you would just leave out the rest, it would be appreciated.

I have no issues with resurrecting old threads...........IF the late contribution adds to the discussion. However, when the new comments fail to address the subject at all and go off on another tangent (with a lot of holes in its concept) and further offering unasked for advice to the previous posters that have not been active on the forums for years, then I am compelled to respond.

I've have sometimes wondered what became of "Kevin" i.e, aachenelf z5 Mpls.