Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Lack of flowers on flowering quince, 1 by soilsandup

soilsandup wrote:
I have a question for any growers of flowering quince - Chaenomeles. I have a large bush that normally blooms profusely this time of the year (near Chinese New Year). But this year, due to the mild fall and winter we have been having in my part of California, the leaves of my flowering quince did not drop off at all. In the photo below, it is still very green. I looked for blossoms, and only found a few in about 5 or 6 branches that had no leaves. So, my question is, do the leaves have to undergo senescence and fall off before the flower buds form on the quince? Last week, I handstripped a bunch of branches, but don't know if that will do any good (as in the case of trying to fool mother nature?)