Early bloom pride of garden

● Ross-shire man’s prized quince shrub a blaze of colour two months early

Keen gardener Jan Overmeer was stunned to find his prized quince shrub in bloom – two months early.

The bright red blooms would normally start to appear in March, but this year Mr Overmeer spotted the first flowers just a few days into January.

The 66-year-old said: “There’s quite an abundance of flowers on it, deep bright red – almost pillar-box red – and only one or two leaves.

“It’s putting on a fine display. But I don’t ever remember it flowering the first week in January.”

The retired dentist planted the Japanese quince at least 20 years ago against the south-facing front of his old croft house in Lochcarron, Ross-shire.

Just a foot high then, it is now about five feet tall with a five to six-feet spread.

And the show of unseasonable mid-winter colour is set to become more dramatic over the next week or so with hundreds of buds still waiting to burst open.

Passersby have a clear view of the early blooms as there is no wall or fence between Mr Overmeer’s house and Lochcarron’s main street.

He said: “People have said it’s magnificent when it’s in flower and the flowers last quite some time as well – I’d say two to three weeks.

“I noticed the first flowers a week ago. I happened to be walking across the front of the house and thought, wow, there’s a lot of blossom on that.”

He put the unexpected early colour down to the mild winter.

“We haven’t really had any hard frosts,” he said.

According to Gardeners’ World Magazine online Mr Overmeer’s Japanese quince, Chaenomeles japonica, usually blooms from March to May, and is likely to be most spectacular in April.

The Royal Horticultural Society also says its cupshaped, five-petalled flowers usually appear in spring.

With such a profusion of blooms, you might expect the keen gardener to be preparing to pick the fruit for jams or jellies later in the year.

But Mr Overmeer, who is married to Sigga, said the fruit was largely inedible, adding: “It’s called a quince and it does produce a lot of fruit – but they’re quite hard.”

“It does produce a lot of fruit but quite hard”

SURPRISE: Jan Overmeer and his colourful quince shrub which can be seen from Lochcarron’s main street