Flowering quince

[treeman]

A seedling of chojubai crossed with C. japonica. Now about 15 years (?)
The little white tag on the left is on the flower which I crossed back to chojubai this year.
Also crossed chojubai white with chojubai red three years ago. The first two to flower this spring have orange flowers.
Crosses this year will include speciosa white and speciosa pink with chojubai white. (= Chaenomeles x superba)
Whatever comes out they are all nice....

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[shibui]

Do you see any difference in growth, hardiness, etc in the crosses so far Mike or are you just looking for flower colour?

I'm also interested that crossing produces seed when the chojubai appears to not set seed normally. I may try some cross pollination here too but that's a very long term project.

[BirchMan]

Great clump!

[Jason.S]

Nice tree mate!

Only recently became interested in quince myself. Have no idea why it took me this long. Picked up a small one a few weeks ago to develop something similar for my own collection.

[treeman]

Do you see any difference in growth, hardiness, etc in the crosses so far Mike or are you just looking for flower colour?

I'm also interested that crossing produces seed when the chojubai appears to not set seed normally. I may try some cross pollination here too but that's a very long term project.

No difference in hardiness but the crosses are more vigorous than chojubai and not as fine. That's why I'm back-crossing. I'm looking for a pink chojubai- like plant mainly but anything unusual would be nice. The white choju is nothing like the red. I don't even know why they call it chojubai. It's more like a white form of japonica. True japonica grows to about a meter high and ''chojubai white'' seems to be just as vigorous. Speciosa can get to 2 or even three meters. I guess C x superba will be somewhere in between but ramify better than speciosa. The red Chojubai seems to be self sterile (maybe they all are?) but crosses very easily with anything else.
As for long term project, you are looking at about 4 years (sometimes 3) from sowing to flowering. So not too bad.

[treeman]

Nice tree mate!

Only recently became interested in quince myself. Have no idea why it took me this long. Picked up a small one a few weeks ago to develop something similar for my own collection.

One is not enough. You need a dozen

[Robsterios]

The Peach colored versions you create are pretty special. Are they a mix of Chojubi and Speciosa? I have a clear pink single bloom Speciosa clump your welcome to take cuttings off.

[treeman]

The Peach colored versions you create are pretty special. Are they a mix of Chojubi and Speciosa? I have a clear pink single bloom Speciosa clump your welcome to take cuttings off.

I have the pink speciosa thanks Rob. The other ones are chojubai x japonica.

[treeman]

This is the first flower (out of 12 plants) of chojubai white x red. I presume the others will be similar but you never know.

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[Mitch_28]

Only just picked myself up a Quince too. Very pretty looking flowers!

Can definitely see how only one won't be enough

Sent from my SM-F926B using Tapatalk

[SuperBonSaiyan]

How do you create the clump look on a chojubai? Do you have to start when they're really young seedlings / cuttings? Or can they be clumped together after they're a bit older?

Also, how can one tell whether a flowering quince is chojubai or not? I've tried to look it up online, and another forum mentioned that the bark on a chojubai will get a "corky" texture at 20-30 years.

Is there a method (aside from waiting 20-30 years) which will reveal whether a plant is chojubai or other?

[Daluke]

Clump - they send suckers so it’s their natural growth.

Chojubai - they are a super dwarf variety. They have small leaves, tight internodes and even small flowers. You’ll know if you have one - just from the price (and the look).

There is a small pool of mother plants in Australia and suspect they all have mosaic virus and a tendency to die off - I imagine why people like Treeman are hybridising.

Nonetheless, very intriguing shrubs.

[shibui]

How do you create the clump look on a chojubai? Do you have to start when they're really young seedlings / cuttings? Or can they be clumped together after they're a bit older?

As with many bonsai techniques there's a number of ways to do this too.
As Daluke mentioned, Chojubai and most Chaenomeles sucker normally so method 1 is to wait for the plant to do it naturally.
Method 2 would be to prune hard to stimulate low regrowth.
Method 3 is to plant several individual plants close together and wait until they fuse or at least look like they are a single clump.

Chojubai also send out underground runners (rhizomes?) so new stems poke up through the soil, round the edge of the pot and sometimes out the drain holes. These can be cut off at repotting and they grow roots quite easily if you need more plants. If the suckers are left for a year or so these sucker stems will develop roots and can be removed and potted up or, if you are after a clump, bring them close to the original trunk (don't even need to cut the underground stem) to add more trunks.

Most of the larger clumps I've seen appear to be an exposed cluster of roots and sucker stems growing close together. I currently have a couple of chojubai in tall, narrow pots to see if that helps produce this style of quince cluster.

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Method 3 is to plant several individual plants close together and wait until they fuse or at least look like they are a single clump.

How thick a cutting can you take and still expect it to take root? Or is it better to air-layer chojubai, regardless of thickness?

[KIRKY]

Chojubai are barely thicker than a stick. So the cuttings will be thin. Chojubai are not like the Flowering Chaenomeles Quince which is much thicker.
Cheers
Kirky