I’ve shared a link to this Polish nursery before for another reason, but I was just looking at it again, and the flowering quince varieties that have been selected for fruit production really stood out to me this time. They have varieties selected in Latvia and Ukraine. Do regular tree quince not grow well in Latvia or Ukraine? I wonder what the motivation is for growing flowering quince varieties there. I haven’t even tried growing tree quince here, because all the reports I’ve heard from the eastern US haven’t been at all promising. Has anyone heard of any of these chaenomeles varieities or any other varieties selected particularly for fruit production being grown in the US? The photos really look great.
Has anyone fruited Pseudocydonia sinsensis? How is the fruit? How does it do? I have some seedlings I still need to find a place to plant. I see raintree is selling seedlings.
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Toyo Nishiki is reputed to be a pretty good producer. A pretty nice ornamental, even if it didn’t produce decent fruits.
Mine (if it’s still alive) has been languishing in a big pot here behind the house, so no fruit set yet.
My grandmother had several of the old C.japonica shrubs around the farmstead that produced fairly well, but I think I was the only thing that ever ate any of them.
I’ve had some Pseudocydonia seedlings here on a couple of occasions, and fireblight has always killed them as soon as they get old enough to bloom. Very neat plants… exfoliating bark resembling some of the crape myrtles, and very good red-orange fall leaf color.
I’m working on breeding Chaenomeles for fruit production in the US. Last year I successfully crossed the large fruited (but wickedly thorny) C. cathayensis with a large fruited selection of C. speciosa called ‘Toyo Nishiki’. The seeds are germinating now in abundance. I’ve got more crosses planned and will likely not start getting the results I’m after until at least the F2 generation or F3 generation in the various crosses.
I’m interested in large fruit, heavy cropping (especially ability to self pollinate), upright growth habit, thornlessness and of course beauty.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Volodymyr-Mezhenskyj
He would be the contact to discuss/trade fruiting “ornamental” quince and hybrids. He has created many, not just quince, he’s kind of a fruiting plant genius!
I hope his collection’s have not been destroyed by the war.
I’ve eaten fruit at Tripple Brook Farm in Southhampton, MA. I believe they are seedlings, as I’m not aware of any Pseudocydonia cultivars. The fruit are massive- softball sized at least- and late ripening. The flavor is pleasing, far better than any Chaenomeles Ive tasted. Not as good as Cydonia, not similar to either really though. The texture is quite gritty, to the point of being somewhat unpleasant I thought. There was some astringency too, though not an unpleasant amount. I made a jam/paste and it was pretty good, I thought. I understand they’re somewhat well regarded in China.
I have a bunch of seedlings grown out from those fruits. Between the technicolor peeling bark and the heavily flared and fluted trunk, theyre very beautiful little trees. They’re really popular for bonsai too apparently.
Agree. Pseudocydonia is a lovely plant in its own right - interesting bark, interesting trunk morphology, clean foliage, great red-orange fall color, pretty blossoms… and large fruit.
I’ve grown it from seed twice, and lost it to fireblight on both occasions once it reached fruiting age and flowered. BANG! Dead almost overnight.
It’s almost like a tie dyed sycamore meets a young banyan tree:
I’m sure glad (so far) there’s little in the way of fireblight in our neck of the woods. I often see what I suspect is fireblight on the whispy summer growth of my Cydonias, though it never seems to be a major problem. I do see some dieback of bigger limbs occasionally, and that whispy growth gets the black shepherd crook look quickly most years. As I understand it, it’s really when it hits at bloom time that it can get right in there and go systemic almost overnight.
