Crab apple trees are perennial favorites due to their beautiful spring flowers, summer fruits and fall foliage displays. Furthermore, these evergreen trees add year-round interest with their various flower colors, fragrances, sizes and tree forms that give it year-round appeal.
“Adams” boasts gorgeous pink buds that bloom into pure white fragrant blooms in early to mid spring, providing great food sources for birds in early fall and throughout winter. Fruits also remain to provide food sources to wildlife during their migratory journeys.
Leaves
Crabapple trees are deciduous plants, meaning that their leaves drop every winter. When spring arrives, however, their colorful blossoms attract bees and other pollinating insects; their delicate pink or white blooms often draw bees and other pollinators towards it. Furthermore, the fruit from crabapples attract birds, deer, and squirrels for feeding purposes.
Crabapples have numerous leaves with different colors and shapes that vary based on various factors. But leaf shape is usually an accurate indication of which species or cultivar it belongs to; crabapple leaves generally range from being egg-shaped (widest near the base) to elliptic in shape with acute tips and serrated margins; their foliage often shows shades of green while other cultivars display bronze tints during summer months.
Branching of a crabapple tree adds another element of beauty. Branches tend to spread outward from its trunk, though some may ascend or descend and create weeping effects when bent low enough. Collectively, their branching forms a dense crown for privacy and structure in your garden.
Crabapple leaves can also vary in size and shape depending on their type of tree; weeping crabapples typically feature smaller and thinner leaves than their rounded counterparts.
Spring Snow’ crabapples boast bright medium green leaves with acuminate or acute tips and serrated edges, suitable for growing in northern climates and possessing good resistance against scab, fire blight, cedar-apple rust.
Flowers
Crabapples are an unforgettable spring sight, boasting delicate colors as their buds open into bloom and spread. Meanwhile, their foliage provides a vibrant spectrum of hues throughout summer; some cultivars even display beautiful autumn displays!
Crabapple flowers come in single, semi-double and double varieties and may feature single-colored petals, stripes or fringed or solid hues. Their clustered blooms, known as corymbs, can appear close to branches. Bisexual blossoms contain male and female organs (anthers and stamens). Finally, crabapple petals often possess clawed shapes at their bases where they attach to the receptacle for easy harvesting.
While crabapple flowers are beautiful, their lifespan is short lived and pollinators often cause damage to trees with pollen-laden blooms that become unsightly blemishes. Depending on which variety is planted, blossoms could be white, pink or red in hue with subtle fragrance.
Flowering crabapples can be an attractive feature in the landscape, providing early spring beauty while brightening shady areas with their vibrant color displays. Crabapples come in all sizes–from dwarf trees to larger shade trees reaching 40 feet tall–and their flowers and fruit can provide food sources for birds during winter.
Flowering crabapples are native to the southeastern United States and widely popular landscape trees. From urban to rural settings, homeowners and gardeners alike love them as an ornamental addition.
The crabapple tree is an easy and resilient plant to cultivate in most climates, with low chilling requirements and resistance to apple scab, fire blight, cedar-apple rust. Cultivar options available for southern gardens include Adironkak with white flowers and orange fruits on an 18-foot tree and Robinson with pale pink blooms and bronze leaves growing 25 feet high; Callaway and Harvest Gold varieties also make excellent choices for southern gardens.
Fruits
Crab apples (Prunus malus) are an extremely varied genus of cultivars that range in sour and bitter taste, yet make delicious jelly or jam when mixed with sugar. Crab apples also make popular ornamental landscape plants where their flowers and fruit add visual interest from spring through fall – as well as their upright branches offering winter interest in gardens or patios.
Crab apples can make great additions to any garden, be it as an accent plant or shade tree. Common varieties, like the ‘Sargent’ crabapple, typically feature tall and wide canopies of green leaves during the summer, followed by abundant, shiny red fruits in autumn. Other varieties, like Lollipop crabapples are ideal for smaller spaces like patios as their narrow crown and low leaf drop allow for easier care.
Crab apple leaves may be oval, ovate (egg-shaped and wider at their base than their tip), or elliptic in shape with serrated edges and acute to obtuse tips. Their colors may help identify each variety but often their shapes play more of an essential role; many top-grafted varieties also boast weeping habits which add another level of attraction.
Crabapples produce bright red fruits that may also be yellow or orange in hue, making for an interesting variety of autumn harvest cleanup. Some crabapple varieties such as Scarlett produce white flowers in spring before producing vibrant red, orange and yellow fruits a few months later; other options, like Spring Snow (fruitless variety) offer no fruit at all – making these plants great options for gardeners who wish to avoid messy fall cleanup or have small children who could mistake them for apples and consume them unknowingly.
The “Lollipop” crabapple is a top-grafted dwarf tree with an upright, rounded branching habit, which typically reaches 15 to 30 feet in USDA zones 2-8. It produces dense clusters of pink flowers in spring that attract butterflies and hummingbirds; additionally its bright red pomes that reach 1/2″ diameter are immensely popular with birds.
Trunk
Crab apples come with various trunk forms; from round to ovoid and thin in diameter to thicker, sturdier and upright forms. Pacific crabapple (Malus sieboldii), with its tall trunk of up to 30 feet can reach 30 feet tall while others, like Callaway crabapple (Malus callawayii), have more vertical forms reaching 25 feet high; other cultivars like Red Splendor or Beverly may feature rounder forms with dense branches resembling semi-weeping effects for semi-weeping appearances.
Crab apples come in various tree shapes, flower colors and fruiting habits that set each variety apart. For instance, the prairifire crabapple (Malus prairifir) features deep pink flowers with masses of purplish-red fruits that attract birds. Its foliage emerges purple before turning bronzy green before eventually taking on yellow, orange and red tones by falltime – as well as exceptional resistance against fire blight, cedar-apple rust and powdery mildew.
Other crabapple trees, such as the Lollipop Crabapple (Malus ‘Lollipop’), feature compact, rounded shapes that require minimal pruning. This cultivar combines beauty and versatility as it can serve both as a shrub or small tree depending on its usage; being grafted means it must be planted within its zone to remain resistant against cold and heat conditions.
Many crabapple trees are susceptible to the frogeye leafspot disease, where leaves develop purple spots resembling the eyes of frogs before eventually wilting and disfiguring. This wilting affects not only its overall appearance but productivity as well as yield.
Appletree Borer (Chrysobothris femorata), is another disease that threatens or kills crabapples, tunnelling beneath their bark to cause cracks in major branches or kill entire trees. A healthy tree may ward off this pest without assistance; otherwise you should spray with insecticide regularly or even consider cutting down damaged portions to make room for new growth – although this process could prove time consuming and labor intensive, but well worth your efforts!
