couple of quince

[drew33998]

Whilst out among my travels working in stumbled across these quince in a nursery several hours away from home. Iwai nishiki and a contorted quince. Getting close to blooming! Couldn't resist them. Thoughts on structuring them? I thought about chopping the crossing trunks on the contorted one but I'm not too sure. Both I will probably grow in the clump style.

 

[fredtruck]

With the contorted quince, I wouldn't chop the crossing trunk. Quince styling works unlike styling for any other tree. Quince have a culture all their own, and crossing trunks can play an interesting part in developing your tree. What I suggest is that you let them grow for for at least a couple of years, and then see where you are. In the meantime, get all the information you can on these interesting plants. Peter Adams book The Art of Flowering Bonsai has a lot of good information on quince. Colin Lewis also has good info in The Bonsai Survival Manual. The thing is, you can let your quince go, and not feed them, and water them as infrequently as you want, and they may still flower and grow because quince are really tough. But to get the most out of the tree, and to learn and grow yourself, these trees have to be taken care of, fed and tended to. If you do this, quince will reward you with explosive blooming and a long lasting flowering season. It's a two-way proposition.

 

[armetisius]

This is absolutely a very lovely plant. Weed it, feed it, and look at it in May.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Is this a white flowering variety? I have a contorted one with white flowers and always wondered the cultivar. Nifty.

John

 

[drew33998]

Is this a white flowering variety? I have a contorted one with white flowers and always wondered the cultivar. Nifty.

John

It said salmon, white, and mixed on the main description board in front of that plant station. The plant tag is just Quince Speciosa. Which doesn't mean a whole lot after reading a little about the nomenclature of quince. Could be any color with that name from what I've read. We will have to see I guess.

 

[drew33998]

The other plant (there are two) is Iwai Nishiki, which is a double red flowering variety.

 

[drew33998]

With the contorted quince, I wouldn't chop the crossing trunk. Quince styling works unlike styling for any other tree. Quince have a culture all their own, and crossing trunks can play an interesting part in developing your tree. What I suggest is that you let them grow for for at least a couple of years, and then see where you are. In the meantime, get all the information you can on these interesting plants. Peter Adams book The Art of Flowering Bonsai has a lot of good information on quince. Colin Lewis also has good info in The Bonsai Survival Manual. The thing is, you can let your quince go, and not feed them, and water them as infrequently as you want, and they may still flower and grow because quince are really tough. But to get the most out of the tree, and to learn and grow yourself, these trees have to be taken care of, fed and tended to. If you do this, quince will reward you with explosive blooming and a long lasting flowering season. It's a two-way proposition.

So no trimming for the contorted then right Fred? The suckers that pop up close to the main groups of trunks keep, but the ones that are outside the main group by a ways remove and plant them up in another pot.

As for the Iwai Nishiki, do you suggest free growth for several years as well?

One more thing. Repot them? If so I am planning on using 50% organics for the moisture content really since my "dragons blood" quince which has 10% organics lost all it's leaves during mid summer. I thought it was a goner.

Hopefully I will be posting better pics in the next few weeks of all three quince with blooms. The dragons blood looks to have only one bloom spike.

 

[fredtruck]

If you are going for a clump, let the suckers go. If you want a single trunk specimen, remove the suckers as soon as they appear.

The reason I think you should let the trees grow freely for a couple of years is because you need to build up some experience with them. You need to find out how each of them grows and responds in your climate. With quince, since they don't trunk up, there's no real reason to rush into styling them. It's better to get to know your tree, and find out how to get what you want from them, and to find out what they need from you.

You should repot them every couple of years.

About the dragons blood losing leaves--this is normal for quince. In late July and August, quince go dormant. This can be quite disturbing unless you know this is normal for these trees.

The issue of soil is touchy. Generally, quince like free draining soil, so I would suggest you use something very low in organics. Quince like water a lot, so if you use quick draining soil, be prepared to water often.