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Fruit-bearing shrub?| Member | Message |
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Posted: Jul/07/2008 10:26 AM PST
Hello, everyone. I could really use some help identifying a shrub. The shrub is producing flowers (a few) in spring and now I've noticed fruit (a lot). The fruit looks like miniature pears. A co-worker said it was a variety of pear, but couldn't remember the name. I've never heard of a pear shrub, but I'd like to move this plant; perhaps prune it. I actually have two of them and they are getting too big for the space allowed. The plants are about 2 1/2 feet high with spreading limbs. The leaves branch off the stem in clumps of 5-7 leaves, with veins and small sawtooth edges; small leaves...I know this sounds crazy, but the leaves smell like apples when they dry out...but the fruit is shaped like pears. I just cut open a fruit and it has a pear-shaped seed "bed" inside but very little smell to it. The flowers in the spring are sparse and not very appealing. As you can tell, I have a black thumb, but I'm getting more interested in gardening every day. Any help anyone can give me will be much appreciated. Thanks. 
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Posted: Jul/07/2008 6:25 PM PST
I looked around and found no such monster as a pear shrub. Alot of plants produce pear shaped fruit including Quince, Kiwi , some types of apple,figs and some exotics i had never heard of, I looked and without knowing the color and size of the fruit its hard to tell but as far as i saw all of them got pretty big and most were trees not shrubs so i might be of more help if you can post some pis of both the leaves and the fruit. |
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Posted: Jul/07/2008 8:14 PM PST
I have a japanese quince but the flowers are pretty the real reason that I keep the bushes. The fruit is very small say 1" or so and shaped like a small tiny pear. Do the branches have thorns? Mine do and that is why I cut them back before I knew what they were. The fruit of quince is edible but usually made into jams because they need sugar to be pleasing. |
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Posted: Jul/08/2008 4:51 AM PST
Welcome to the group, kathyr. Sorry that I don't have an answer for you, though. |
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Posted: Jul/08/2008 8:35 AM PST
Thanks everyone. I'll try to get some pics posted in the next few days. The fruit is green, although some appear to be ripening to a pink. I noticed that after the the leaves dry, they smell like apples, so maybe it is a variety. Frankly, I had never heard of an apple shrub...you can tell I'm a definitely a novice. The name japanese quince sounds vaguely familiar. I bought these plants, but didn't keep the tag years ago. I'm an impulse buyer, unfortunately. Hopefully, after the pics are posted, a positive id can be made. Thanks so much for responding. I really appreciate the welcome too. |
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Posted: Jul/08/2008 8:58 AM PST
Hey, everyone. My plant is a japanese quince. I found some pictures by googling it. It looks just like my plant. I've added the web site where I found the pictures...Hope GardenGuides doesn't mind. If this is a no-no, someone please let me know...lol... http://www.greenzonelife.com/garden-plants/shrubs/ japanese-quince.html I plan to do further research and probably move these plants this fall. I may even try to grow some seedlings...make jam or jelly... I'm not going to post pics of my plants now that I have them id., unless of course someone would like me to...just let me know. Thanks again to everyone who responded to my sos. I appreciate it. |
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Posted: Jul/08/2008 11:15 AM PST
Just in case anyone wanted a peek at japanese quince. After reading this thread I know I wanted to see what it looked like. Attachments:  |
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Posted: Jul/08/2008 11:54 AM PST
lotta dwarf fruit trees look like shrubs at first. At least some of mine did. Maybe a dwarf bartlett pear tree? A picture would help all of us. 
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