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Cyonia oblonga is the botanical name for the fruiting Quince, a deciduous shrub or small tree which produces fruit, inedible when raw but fine when cooked in jams, jellies, candies and pies. This plant is not to be confused with the flowering Quince, botanically known as Chaenomeles, which has a very lovely showing each spring of bright magenta, pink, orange, white or red colored blossoms, depending on cultivar of course. The fruiting Quince has none of the deadly thorns associated with the spring time showoff which has little else to recommend it the rest of the year.
Not that the fruiting Quince isn’t pretty in itself. It is indeed something to behold especially in the sparse winter landscape as it has interesting twisted, contorted branches and shows up rather nicely covered in ice and snow giving structure to the garden when almost all is dead looking and boring. In the spring this tree which can grow 10-25 feet tall bears 2 inch wide blossoms of white or pale pink. They grow at the tips of the already leafed out branches and no one can say it isn’t just as pretty as your average Crabapple tree making it quite as useful an ornamental as the flowering Quince. For these reasons alone we should all want one in our yard. But there are other reasons.
For one thing the fruiting Quince likes heavy clay soil and actually does best in it. It even tolerates wet, swampy conditions. Imagine that! A fruit tree that can take the worst situation and come out looking pretty darn good and giving you fruit to boot. It does have shallow roots so go careful at the base of the tree. Damaging the roots may encourage suckers to grow which don’t do anything good for the plant nor for its appearance. They become a drain on the plant, hardly ever flower nor bear fruit and they have a tendency to be susceptible to fireblight. These suckers should therefore be pruned out regularly when they emerge. Limit the use of high nitrogen fertilizers to prevent this succulent growth.
The foliage of the fruiting Quince is quite lovely. The leaves are an oval shape and 2-4 inches long. The top side is a dark rich green and the underside almost white. When the breeze ruffles them a bit the entire tree seems to shimmer in the sun. The fruiting Quince does best in full sun. In the autumn the foliage turns a bright yellow but not before the large yellow fruit, so amazingly fragrant, ripens in early fall.
The fruiting Quince is a rather slow growing tree, so slow in fact that many consider it a shrub for the first few years as it tends to develop many branches at the base of the trunk. To make it appear more like a tree is quite easy. Simply prune away all but one main trunk, choosing the strongest stem and cutting out all the rest to form a neat canopy. Some, however, may consider the fruiting Quince’s slow growth as a good thing. The longer it stays small the easier it is to harvest the fruit and you will want to harvest this sweet, fragrant fruit.
The more popular cultivars include the old favorite “Orange” which also goes by the name “Apple” in some areas. The fruit is round , about the size of a navel orange and has a golden color on the skin with an orange-yellow flesh. This tree is salt water tolerant and can even grow in sand dunes.
One of the largest fruiting Quince is “Cooke’s Jumbo”, nearly double the size of the others. The fruit is white fleshed and the skin is a yellowish green.
“Pineapple” has a slight pineapple taste with a tender white flesh and skin a light gold. The fruit is a round sort of shape and looks very pretty against the dark leaves of the tree.
“Smyrna” which is believed to originate from Smyrna, Turkey has lemon yellow fruit which can be round or oblong. It has a great Quince fragrance.
“Quincydonia” is reportedly the first Quince brought to American by Thomas Jefferson. It is very popular in the south, grows only to 10 feet high and produces huge amounts of large fruit each weighing several pounds. This is the only one that is self pollinating so it can be planted singly.
All these trees are hardy in zones 5-10 and require another Quince tree for cross pollination if fruiting is desired. These trees begin to bear fruit rather young too. The fruit can be orange, apple or pear shaped and smell great. The fruit can be harvested early and keeps for months without being refrigerated. Some folks, if you can believe this, use the fruit as an air-freshener. As the young fruit ripens (it starts off with a fuzzy skin much like a peach that comes off as it matures) the fragrance, lovely and powerful, fills the air. No need for Glade!
Even if you don’t much care about the fruit the fruiting Quince would make an outstanding ornamental tree. It is a marvelous site when full to bursting with ripening fruit as the branches bend in weeping form from their weight. If you are looking for a fruit producing, ornamental tree for a sunny landscape which happens to have heavy clay soil on the wet side or even for the seaside garden the fruiting Quince can’t be beat . Well, that’s definitely me so guess what I’ll be planting next Arbor Day? You should too, you know.
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 Articles @ Helium: http://www.helium.com/users/32782/show_articles
Monthly contributor to Maximum Yield Indoor gardening Magazine easily found @ www.maximumyield.com
How to create your own backyard bird sanctuary: http://www.helium.com/zone/2884-how-to-create-your-own-backyard-bird-sanctuary
Shrubs: http://www.helium.com/zone/2881-shrubs
Ornamental Grass Zone: http://www.helium.com/zone/2775-ornamental-grasses
Trees: http://www.helium.com/zone/2774
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