One of the pleasures of my job is to use someone else's money to purchase plants. When I see an unusual plant I am not familiar with being offered by one of my vendors, the first thing I do is a little research and see if it will grow here. You can't rely solely on zone information, especially in the South, you also have to know how it handles humidity and heat (both daytime and nighttime temperatures). So I will give something a try if it sounds good, and if it sells well, I'll try to make it part of our regular inventory.
The one we planted is pictured here, and as you can see it is an early bloomer; I took these pictures last week. It is pretty, but I don't think it will replace Japanese Cherries anytime soon. Now that it is older you can see that the bark is going to be attractive, and all I read said that this is one of its main assets.
Last fall the tree set copious amounts of fruit. They were huge yellow orbs, and if they were to fall on you, you would know it. They are supposed to be edible so I tasted one -- I have not added them to my diet; maybe they are one of those things that you have to add lots of sugar and turn into jam. The one below has been outside all winter and it is still as hard as a big yellow rock.
The Chinese Quince should get about 20' tall by slightly less in width, and is listed as hardy in zones (5)6-8. It is indeed in the same family as common Flowering Quince, but unlike other members of the family, it is thornless.
Maybe the main reason I like this is for its botanical name. Pseudocydonia sinensis just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?
