Add peat moss and compost in the planting hole or potting soil to make it rich. Dig a hole about twice the diameter of the root ball. Choose a site that gets 5-6 hours of sunlight a day. The best time to plant is spring, summer, or fall. You can buy the plant from a nursery or online. Coralburst and Fireburst crab apples are best for small spaces as they are dwarf varieties and slow growers. For ornamental purposes, Betchel crabapple is the best. If you are looking for edible varieties, go for Butterball, Centennial, or Chestnut Crabapple. Mainly divided into two categories, ornamental and edible, their astonishing show of colors is unparalleled! Let’s know about Crab Apple Tree Care and requirements in detail! Check out our article on growing apple tree in pots here ! Almost all varieties produce fruits, but not all are edible. It is one of the best landscaping trees and quite popular in Europian countries. In Celtic culture, the wood was burned during fertility festivals as a good luck charm.Ĭrabapple trees have been regularly mentioned in literature, with Shakespeare incorporating them into both A Midsummer Night's Dream and Love's Labour Lost.Coming in a wide array of colorful varieties, these beautiful trees not only stand out but also bear fruits! Learn all about Crab Apple Tree Care here!Ĭrab apple is not just valued for its fruits but also for the colorful flowers it produces in spring.

If they don't explode, it means that sadly, that person is not meant for you. Mythology & Folklore of The Crab Apple Treeįolk lore states that if you throw crabapple pips into a fire whilst saying the name of the person you love you can discover if it really is true love as the pips will explode. They are sometimes also used for practicing the art of bonsai. Crab Apple trees produce huge quantities of pollen so are used as pollinisers in orchards. As mentioned above, the larger fruits are also suitable for culinary use such as making crab apple jelly or chutney. They are particularly beneficial to wildlife, with the flowers attracting many types of bee who come looking for the nectar and the fruits are eaten by birds. Uses & Benefits of Crab Apple Treesīeyond being decorative, there are many other uses of Crab Apple trees. Malus toringo 'Aros' is a dwarf variety with particularly rich dark purple foliage, wheras Malus toringo 'Scarlett' has deeply lobed foliage. Many Crab Apple trees have green leaves similar to those on apple trees, but there are a number of varieties with lobed, bronzed or purple foliage. For unusual double flowers, look at Malus 'Snowcloud' and for large pink flowers, look at Malus 'Rudolph'.

Flowers can be white through to dark purple, with bright pink buds being a feature even on some white flowering varieties. Varieties with large fruits are both highly decorative and productive, producing crab apples suitable for culinary use - some examples include Malus 'John Downie', 'Rosehip' and Marble. Malus 'Coralburst' and sargentii 'Tina' are dwarf varieties ideal for the smallest of gardens.Ĭrab Apple trees are named after the compact size of their fruits, which vary from 1cm to 5cm in diameter (any larger and they would be considered a normal apple). Malus 'Sun Rival' and 'Royal Beauty' are amongst the best weeping varieties, whilst Malus 'Red Obelisk' and tschonoskii are excellent upright varieties. With around 40 species and hundreds of hybrids of Malus, there is a huge choice of both features and size/form of these trees.Ĭrab Apple trees come in rounded, upright, weeping and dwarf forms. Originally from temperate regions in the northern hemisphere, Crab Apple trees grow well in virtually all soils (other than waterlogged or very dry) in sun or partial shade.

Crab Apple trees are modest in height and it is this, along with their strong spring and autumn features, that make them so popular in small gardens.

Crab apple color