Thanks so much for the prompt, thoughtful replies, all of which are helpful. The pear tree and sucker is a real possibility, but I also may have ordered a quince a few years ago and lost track of it through the moving I've done. The advice about the drastic pruning is helpful. This tree hadn't done much because of moving it (and probably pruning a little because of the move) This year, it has at least doubled in size. My plan is to keep all three trunks, severely prune and keep the center uncluttered. I guess if I ever get fruit on all three trunks, it will let me know if the grafted pear scenario is true. If I get quince on all three trunks.......then I guess I have a quince tree!! Thanks again for the help. Ray

Long time since the post, with no answer. I'm just browsing other region forums, but I'll leave an answer in case anyone else is curious. Flowering Quince can take a bit of a "beating". Now, it blooms the following year on what was the new growth of the previous year. So cutting ends off in winter is not good. Let it bloom, then prune. I have a table on my site, but can't put the link on this forum. If you type a search on my user name written the way you think it should be written without the dash marks, look for my site URL and pick the pruning page - scroll down.

It's a nice tree. The only problem I see would be that pruning might be tough and eventually it might shade out the roses. Not really a fan of people who advocate to chop down healthy trees. But It's up too you but with or without the tree you are probably still going to have trouble with pests or diseases since it's all roses and once one gets ill it's easier for it to spread rose to rose to rose. And you will still get aphids and japanese beetles...they LOVE roses. If you do decide to get rid of the tree, it's not very big so think about posting an ad that if someone wants your ornamental tree they can come by and dig it up and give it a new home, plenty of people do this in my town and plenty of people have nothing against a free larger tree for their yard than what they get at a local box store. Also I would suggest if you are removing it, replace it with a tree or something that is not related to roses (no rose tree). Diversity is important for a garden, if something happens to your roses it likely won't spread to an unrelated tree but will to another rose bush. It's easier to replace a sick/dying rose bush than it is to lose an established tree that takes a long time to reach its full beauty.

I know you are not being mean spirited, indianagardengirl. You are trying to get me to move forward. It took us time to make the decision to apply for our tree permit, and then to go through the process. Had the tree been able to be removed, it would have brought us peace of mind as the possibility of water damage would have been greatly reduced to almost nil. So now, moving on, means making difficult decisions: move (very difficult as I still have children living with me); do an addition to the house that would require removal of the tree (difficult choice and expensive); prune the tree (easy choice; but still have the risk of water damage); remove the tree (pay a fine which could be substantial, but unknown). Part of me finds some comfort in educating and helping others about our tree bylaw.