Quince Crush

Chaenomeles speciosa (unknown cultivar) on a busy street corner near my home.

Yes, it must be a botanical crush. How else to explain why this flowering quince  has been my 365 project photo three times (days 21, 48 & 54) since January 1st. I admit I'm strongly attracted to the salmon-pink blossoms and have romantic notions of making quince jelly. Though I can't grow this shrub on the balcony, I wonder if I could recommend it to my mom for her garden (& thereby secure a source of fruit for jelly-making.)

So this evening, I decided to begin my research. Here are a few notable finds:

Botanical, horticultural & culinary links --

• Wikipedia's entry for Chaenomeles

• Flowering Quince: Cinderella of the Early Spring Garden

•  Kwantlen Polytechnic University, School of Horticulture plant database, Chaenomeles speciosa

• University of Conneticut's plant database, Chaenomeles speciosa

• Chaenomeles japonica

• Quince jelly

• How to use the fruit of the flowering quince

Weather forecast

Morning skies overcast with pink, 
Scattered forsythia flurries in late afternoon,

Followed by clumps of snowdrops.

One hundred percent probability of spring throughout the day.

Midweek colours

Primula

Quince

Sunday floral brunch

Yesterday morning & early afternoon, during a very long and sweet Westie walk, I felt like I was sampling the botanical equivalent of a pre-Spring buffet table. The menu included:

Daffodil punch

Camellia soufflé:

Plum blossom relish

Paper birch phyllo pastry

And here endeth the post, with a wink ;-) and a smile :-).

Deciduous shrub with pink flowers that blooms in late winter

I owe this shrub an apology. For nearly two weeks I've been referring to it by the wrong name: Daphne. Worse, I had titled & tagged my Flickr images incorrectly.  Ack.  So embarrassing. 

Perhaps the safest action would be to identify this as "deciduous shrub with pink flowers that blooms in February" so that I won't make a second taxonomic blunder.  But yesterday & today I consulted several references (1, 2, 3, 4) and the flowers' structure & bloom time are consistent with the images & descriptions of Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn.' So I'm going to tentatively identify it as this.

This particular Viburnum is too large to grow on a balcony. These are photos of shrubs blooming in late January/early February throughout my neighbourhood.

I think Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn' would make a lovely companion for winter-flowering Hamamelis (witch hazel). If I had a large enough space & the right conditions, I'd grow one of each, to add pink & yellow to grey, late-winter days.