Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince

If you love color, birds and butterflies, but really need a low-maintenance option for your garden… you’ll adore Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles japonica 'Texas Scarlet'). This charming compact shrub is one of the very first plants to flower in the spring.

The dynamic display of bright, tangerine-red spring color will absolutely knock your socks off. The blooms last for weeks! Get ready for neighbors to talk about it. Total strangers may flag you down in your yard to ask questions.

Flowers bloom just before the new red leaves emerge. Keep your binoculars and camera ready, because birds such as Baltimore Orioles love the sweet nectar. Butterflies always appreciate early blooms.

Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince is a brilliant harbinger of the season. It begins its dramatic display of flowers held on bare branches. Blooms begin as early as early January in the South, early February in the West and late February in the North, often breaking atop a snow-blanketed landscape.

As you can imagine, this tough shrub is a welcome sight for winter-tired eyes. You’ll thrill every single year to see your Quince bloom.

Showy young foliage emerge as red-tinted leaves. Foliage matures into glossy green foliage over the summer and burnish with burgundy-purple for fall color.

Japanese Flowering Quince is a low-growing, thorny shrub that stays compact. It features a picturesque growth habit, and wonderful interlaced branch structure. Use these beautiful branches in your cut flower arrangements spring, summer and fall!

Small, yellow-green fruit is ready in the late summer. The birds will very happily take them off your hands for you. When designing your garden, why not select plants that help improve your local ecosystem?

If a beautiful bloom and a plant that requires little attention is your desire, then the Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince would be a great addition to your landscape. Order yours today!

How to Use Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince in the Landscape

Let the Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince start off your year with a burst of color. This variety makes a huge impact in your landscape right out of the gate to start your growing season.

Plant them 3 – 5 feet apart to create a solid hedge. Measure from the center of one plant to the center of the next. They’ll grow together and create a really impactful garden feature!

Bright orange-red flowers really pop against the dark green leaves of this deciduous shrub. Repeat it along the length of shrub borders. It looks incredible with the dark green tones of evergreen shrubs behind it.

Let it shine in spring. It will then perform beautifully as a wonderful backdrop for shorter perennials and grasses.

Try this compact beauty as a lovely specimen plant planted by itself in a really visible spot. Perhaps near an entrance? Or by a special piece of garden art to draw your eye? It would make a great focal point in a Zen or Meditation Garden.

If you’d like to protect your property, plant a tough, low hedge of Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince under low windows or along the fence line. The small thorns on old wood make it a great barrier plant along the fence line to stop unwanted foot traffic with a lot of style!

Plant it in a massed planting if you have a site with poor soil and hot, all day sun. Plant 3 - 5 feet apart in a zig-zagged pattern. Keep your planting weeded, especially when young. Use a thick layer of mulch between the plants to get them established.

For a real winter treat, cut some of the upper branches in the winter to bring inside for forcing. Placed in a vase with water changed daily, these will bloom when exposed to the warmth indoor temperatures. Choose the upper branches with the largest buds for the most spectacular indoor display of color.

You will love this plant!

#ProPlantTips for Care

This is a plant that prefers full sun for the best flowering. However, many gardeners can only offer it partial sun. Try it anyway, you may be happily surprised.

Prune to shape in spring after flowering is done for the year. Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince plants bloom on old growth, so pruning will reduce the growth of flowering spurs. That’s why it’s important to prune it right after flowering in the spring.

The plant can be pruned to any desired size at that time. When pruning after bloom, removing 3 year or older stems to help to maintain vigorous growth.

The Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince will grow in almost any good draining soil. Unlike other plants, the Flowering Quince do not like overly fertile soils. That’s good news for many gardeners who are faced with poor soil.

While your plant is young, please give it regular amounts of water. Poke your finger into the soil to see how it feels. Getting dry? Give it a long drink. Still moist? No need to water today.

Once established, this is one of the most drought tolerant plant you can grow.

Tough Texas Scarlet can handle both dry and moist sites. It grows well in most any soil type but prefers well-drained soil.

Because it grows in many different climates from Zones 4-9, this plant has become a very valuable landscape asset throughout most of the country. This is especially because it is adapted to all urban environments.

We recommend you order enough to complete your entire project for the best results. Order your Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince today!