Quince (Cheanomeles) repotting

Neil,

There are several gardenias used for bonsai. Those pretty little shohins are usually G. radicans, what is sold here in the nursery trade as "dwarf gardenia". Years ago I remember hearing that to grow it in most parts of Florida (as a landscape plant) it had to be grafted onto a nematode resistant gardenia root stock. We used it here as a small, shrubby groundcover in landscapes but the nematodes found it and have virtually wiped them out of gardens here. Over the period of a couple of years you can literally watch them destroy a bed. They start to yellow and look like they are starving from lack of fertilizer - and I guess they are because when you pull them up they have no roots! I had worked on a beautiful dwarf cascade for years, it had been an old nursery stock plant. Three or 4 years ago it started to decline and I assumed it was because it needed to be repotted. Nope, nematodes! I still miss that bonsai.

You will also see the G. jasminoides varieties used for bonsai too. The favorite in Japan is the one that sets those odd orange fruit. We don't see that one much here and people don't often realize it's even a gardenia. Bill V. posted pics of one of his a while back (I think from Japan) with roundish leaves and flat, single flowers. I told him that it was the one in the trade here called 'daisy'. He never responded, but no surprise there.

R

NeilDellinger wrote:Quince are also sensitive to slight/short warm ups in winter. We had a few days in the 40's in Chicago and I am seeing leaf buds emerging now.

I'm seeing this in one of my in-ground quince's right now...it's been very mild this fall/early winter, lots of days in the 40s and even a few 50+. Now of course we're back into the deep freeze.

Interesting thread with lots of useful info. My two quince's are just babies with a long road ahead, so this is good info to have for the future.

Chris

The trick farmers use for dealing with nematodes is to plant marigolds in the bed a year prior to planting of the main crop that is nematode prone (in my case strawberries) then as the years go by I keep planting marigolds in and amongst my strawberries. Perhaps this could be adapted to help with prevention of susceptible bonsai species that are in the ground growing out?
-Jay