Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Chaenomeles japonica  Gardeners often have a love-hate relationship with plants, shrubs and trees - there's nothing wrong with that. For me it‘s bulbs. I love them when they flower in early spring, but hate them when I forget where they are and inadvertently dig them up. Then there are roses. Some are brilliant flower-producing specimens, but generally they’re a real bugger to prune, especially climbers, when you haven’t got a great deal of hair left on your head!  This all brings me to Japanese Quince, Chaenomeles japonica, a deciduous shrub native to Japan, related to both true quinces and Chinese quinces.  In the middle of winter, mid-July onwards, this shrub flowers a brilliant orange/red/coral. It’s a beacon that says: “Pollen right here! Nectar available” for those bugs and birds that dare to come and get it. It’s the promise that there will be a spring… at some stage.  For six weeks or so it has gorgeous flowers with yellow stamen – the look of fecundity. No leaves yet, just flowers on branches older t