Image by Michiteru Kodama.
Chaenomeles x superba ‘Crimson and Gold’ likes to lie low in the garden. It creeps up to you in early spring and shouts ‘I’m flowering! Pay me attention!’ And you do. Soldier-red flowers with regal gold stamens make you sit up and look. And so do the enormous, fragrant and edible (if a little dull) fruits that follow in the winter, which look like a curious cross between a lemon and an apple.
This is an easy-going shrub, which will either sit happily at the front of a border, or trained against a sunny wall. Its stark, oriental growth habit means you shouldn’t want to prune it any more than necessary.
Vital stats:
Location:
Any
Light:
Happiest in full sun
When to plant:
Autumn
What can I expect from this plant?
Height: 1m
Spread: 2m
Flowers: March – April
