“Standard” Japanese Quince, does it have potential?

[Mike Hennigan]

So I have an old Japanese quince growing in my yard. This is not Chojubai, but more of a standard landscape variety, with coarser growth. It’s lovely in the spring when it is covered with gorgeous red flowers but other than that it is a pretty ugly landscape shrub.

My questions are: Does anyone have experience working with the “normal” Japanese quince varieties like this one? Do these varieties have potential as bonsai? Do the leaves reduce at all once grown in bonsai culture?

Basically I am going to be digging out and removing this quince from my yard and replacing it with a nice landscape lace leaf JM. So it is going either way. I would prefer to plant the Japanese maple this fall instead of waiting til the spring since planting trees and shrubs in the landscape is always better to do in the fall. So if I decide to keep the quince I will wait until the leaves start to change color, dig it out of the ground with a sizable rootball, burlap the rootball and mulch it in for the winter. Leaving the rootball undisturbed. In the spring I would go back and open up the root ball and remove the field soil to pot up the many trunks. I think this should work fine and that way I can get the JM in the ground this fall.

This past spring I decided to prune it back very hard, though the trunks are taller than they appear to be in the photo. Before and after pics.





And a couple pics from today, after pushing strong growth all summer:



The bottom line is that I already have a lot of bonsai trees to look after and I don’t want to waste my time if working with this variety won’t be rewarding. Though I do have a lot of taller wider trunks in this clump (this bush has probably been planted here for at least 50 years) so I think that can work to balance out the coarse growth. Also I’m not totally sure what I will find when I open up the rootball. Will these trunks be strongly fused to each other or will they separate easily? Either way there’s a lot of trunks in this clump so I could come out of this with some gnarly clump style trees or have more than enough trunks to put together a few quince forests. Thanks in advance for any advice or insight!

 

[RobertB]

I know you could start a shit ton of nice little air layers off of next summer. 100 plants. I have several of the standard red varieties and I enjoy them. Ramification is pretty difficult but they are still very nice. you could wire out all that new growth then air layer all summer next year. good bonsai presents for people.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Hmm, yea I suppose. I’ve got about 40 trunks in this clump though, the last thing I want to do is air layer to make more trees. ?

 

[drew33998]

I think you will probably be surprised when you dig it up. If it as old as you say then it probably has some good bones several inches below the ground. As far as making a nice clump out of it I have no idea. I haven't been able to get the three that I have ramify very well. Someone else will have to impart that wisdom

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The 'regular' forms of flowering quince do indeed make good bonsai. Virtually all varieties have potential.

 

[thumblessprimate1]

Not sure when, but I'd dig it up. Washout some of the soil. Reduce the number of trunks and suckers. Maybe even split up that clump into smaller clumps. Would definitely cut those trunks lower and seal cuts with wood glue.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I think when you dig that Chaenomeles up, you will find the many branches fuse together into a short trunk, like a burl. It might be one massive burl of wood, or it might be easy to break it into smaller hunks. Late summer is a good time to repot Chaenomeles, but as far as collecting this, September might be a little bit late as Ithaca NY does have pretty serious winters. I'd probably wait until just after the ground thaws in spring. These large types of flowering quince can make good single trunk bonsai if you find a chunk of the buried trunk that could be reduced to a single trunk. I guarantee that what is going on underground does not look like a bunch of adjacent independent trunks, the way it looks above ground.

I would not bother with air layering, as you mentioned. Flowering quince root easily enough from cuttings, even large 1 inch diameter trunks can root. I had success rooting inch diameter cuttings in spring before leafing out. I imagine autumn hardwood cuttings would root also. When you dig this shrub out, some parts of it will essentially end up as cuttings. They will root.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Yea I have no idea what I will find under there, my hope would be to break it up into a bunch of single trunks or smaller clumps. I know they sucker from the roots, I assume that’s how they build this trunk density over time. I have little ones that sucker up from the roots all over the yard within 10 feet of this bush. So I assumed I would find them connected to each other via some root formation. It’s a big question mark right now for me lol.

When I dig them this fall I would be digging them as if a nurseryman or landscaper would dig to ball and burlap to transplant. With a hefty rootball and a large chunk of earth attached. It is a normal practice to transplant deciduous trees in the fall with this approach. Then move it to my back yard, mulch in the rootball for the winter. The following spring I would open the massive rootball to see what’s going on in there to pot them up.

The quince is being removed this fall whether I keep it for bonsai or not. To make way for my new garden planting and the Japanese maple being planted in that spot.

 

[Paulpash]

I like them - mine's a red double. They are lovely trees & will be one of the earliest to brighten your benches. They don't thicken fast - I believe you could have the bones of a really good clump there. Mine's around 27 years old, bought as a thin whip from a garden centre.

 

[River's Edge]

Yea I have no idea what I will find under there, my hope would be to break it up into a bunch of single trunks or smaller clumps. I know they sucker from the roots, I assume that’s how they build this trunk density over time. I have little ones that sucker up from the roots all over the yard within 10 feet of this bush. So I assumed I would find them connected to each other via some root formation. It’s a big question mark right now for me lol.

When I dig them this fall I would be digging them as if a nurseryman or landscaper would dig to ball and burlap to transplant. With a hefty rootball and a large chunk of earth attached. It is a normal practice to transplant deciduous trees in the fall with this approach. Then move it to my back yard, mulch in the rootball for the winter. The following spring I would open the massive rootball to see what’s going on in there to pot them up.

The quince is being removed this fall whether I keep it for bonsai or not. To make way for my new garden planting and the Japanese maple being planted in that spot.

You are right about the connected roots. Acully the easiest way to reproduce quince is from these wandering roots as cuttings. You will find that there are a lot to remove when trying to sort out the main root ball. They tend to do better in deeper containers and consistent moisture. not very fond of drying out.

 

[parhamr]

Go for it! I have a clump Chaenomeles Japonica dug up from a landscape: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/japanese-quince-clump.22073/

You will also find amazing root cuttings in future years as you whittle the mass down to a more finalized bonsai.

The leaves do reduce.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Thanks for all of the input y’all, it’s encouraging to see other’s working on these varieties @Paulpash and @parhamr nice trees! Will definitely give this a go. It’s so large and dense, about two feet across, i’m sure I can get some nice clumps out of this. The size and density of the thing is also what makes it so daunting. I’ve been trying to convince myself that it’s worth the effort. This thread really helped with that.