Flowering quince does bloom on "old" wood that is farther down into the shrub. Nature of the beast. I have been hesitating to rejuvenate a sputtering 'Jet Trails' white flowering quince by cutting it back to a few inches from the ground for the same reason - it will probably be two or three years before it blooms again.

Thanks, hortster I guess I'll just let the shrub alone, hoping the
upper branches become "old" by next spring..lol

lack of full sun???

or the buds set last fall.. and you clipped them off???

ken

No, it's in full sun and the buds were never clipped off.

Considering the harsher than normal winter, you might consider that the flower buds above the snow line were killed. Those below the snow line are now blooming.

Can't speak to it flowering this year for the first time but you may have a borderline hardiness quince and this winter was its first with sustained snow cover during the coldest nights of the year.

BlueHeron, like someone wrote above, that is the nature of the beast. Mine (I have 2 different cultivars) bloom at the bottom. The shrubs are also still quite low after about 10 years, maybe 3 ft. tall. but wider than that. The "Crimson and Gold" one blooms nicely, but most of the flowers are lost down in the foliage. That one also tends to bloom a lot in the fall for me here in Cen. PA.
I have pruned some old Chaenomeles, maybe 40-50 years old, and even they tend to underwhelm when in bloom. I think of them as shrubs for the one who owns them: from far away they show poorly, but up close the flowers are quite nice.

there are at least two type of Q .. the ones with good fruit.. and the ones with horrible fruit.. lol ..

i have the horrible one .... its bloomed every year for a decade here in adrian MI z5 .... INCLUDING THIS YEAR... AFTER THE RABBITS GIRDLED ALL 30 STEMS ... whats that all about.. i figure it has just enough juice in the stems to flower.. before it all dries out and dies... and then i will run it over with the truck ... trim it all to the ground.. and have full faith.. it will be back by fall ... and flower next spring ...

mine is grown in full sand.. never watered.. and never suffered winter damage ...

i do not have the other Q ...

perhaps we need a full ID of the plant you are talking about ... to figure out first.. if its Q .... and second.. what kind it is..

frankly.. mine is so ugly .. with 2 inch thorns... i wouldnt bother with it ... if not for the flowers ...

ken

ken, one is Chaenomeles (same as Pseudocydonia?) and usually called Flowering Quince, the other is Cydonia oblonga, mostly just called Quince. I have both. One is a tree like a Pear tree, the other is a sprawling shrub with thorns and red or pink flowers. I'm not sure why they share a name, the plants are very different.

One tree I have makes small worthless fruit, the other 2 make huge fruit. The one with worthless fruit (the size of a dime) is still standing because 1), it makes 1000's of big flowers that last a week, and 2) I don't have anything better at this time to take its place.

FWIW Pseudocydonia is a separate genus and is not the same as Chaenomeles. Chaenomeles used to be classified under Cydonia as Cydonia japonica. Hence sharing the name 'Quince'. The fruit vary in size on Chaenomeles, some cultivars producing quite large fruit. They smell very much like Cydonia fruit. The picture shows R to L: Chaenomeles Crimson and Gold fruit, Apple Golden Delicious (admittedly rather a small specimen) and Medlar Large Russian

You get a better visibility of the flowers by shortening the new growth each year (spur pruning). Cutting the whole thing down and starting it over will not fix the natural growth mode.

Anyone has free cuttings (flowering quince),.. I will pay for shipping.