In article ,
"0tterbot" wrote:

tbh we're not 100% sure they are quinces - there was no fruit last year, so
i'm guessing :-) they look like quinces, though.

however, there are several, & they have water shoots at their bases, & even
worse, clumps of suckers coming up out of the ground.

Depends what you mean by "quinces"!

The edible quince is Cydonia oblonga, and if left unpruned looks like a
shrubby kind of tree, like this:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Im..._oblonga_1.jpg
I prune mine, so it has an open vase shape. While I have seen it shoot from
low down on the trunk, I haven't seen it sucker.

OTOH the Flowering quince is Chaenomeles japonica. It is a bush with a
suckering habit -- that is, it shoots from the base. Over time, they can
become quite large thickets. Here is a small one:
http://www.unperformedgarden.com/Arb...haenomeles.htm
And a big group:
http://www.huntingtonbotanical.org/W.../Image124.html

Just to make it more confusing, you can eat the fruit of the flowering quince
(or "japonica", as it's sometimes called). It makes a nice jelly.

So if yours are Japonicas, they are behaving naturally :-)

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue