Forcing Quince

In these shaky economic times, many of us are looking for ways to economize, but keep style and beauty in our lives. A perfect example is using things from our garden in lieu of buying fresh flowers. In my area (Washington,D.C.), Japanese Quince is just starting to show color. I have two of these shrubs in my garden. The branches are extremely easy to force. Just snip a few branches and place them in a vase in water. I particularly like the coral pink quince in a blue vase. The Chinese vase below called the Royal Court Vase is gorgeous and would work perfectly. I love its bulbous midsection and scenes of court life. It is on sale right now at The Source Perrier Collection for $75.00. It is regularly $162.50. If you haven't seen their catalog or visited their website, please do. They have an exquisite eye. The glass vase is from Crate and Barrel and is only $39.95. I love the free form curves and turquoise color. Flowers would arrange themselves. The two lovely photos below are courtesy of the excellent blog Style Court. Japanese Quince branches are very dramatic and architectural with their nearly bare branches and would look great in many settings, from modern to traditional to Asian. Think spring!

Style Court examples

Lovely oil on canvas  showing Japanese Quince in a turquoise vase from Olga Plam Gallery.

Crate and Barrel Evelyn Vase $39.95

Source Perrier Royal Court Vase $75.00

(photos courtesy of stylecourt.blogspot.com, olgaplam.com, sourceperrier.com, and crateandbarrel.com)