Wild Apples

MEDIUM-SIZED DECIDUOUS TREES WITH ATTRACTIVE FLOWERS AND SMALL FRUIT, CRABAPPLES CAN HELP POLLINATE APPLES

- Jennifer Stackhouse

Crabapples are very rewarding trees to grow as they are both ornamental and productive. They sport beautiful blossoms in spring and small but attractive fruit that ripens in autumn and can persist on the tree for many months, often well into winter. The leaves turn yellow in autumn before they fall.

While you can’t pluck a crabapple from the tree and munch away as you can with its close relative the apple, the fruit does make beautiful, tasty jelly and can be enjoyed as a paste known as “cheese”.

Crabapples are rich in pectin. When boiled they produce pectin stock that can then be used to set other fruit jams such as strawberry jam.

There is however another very important reason to grow crabapples: these flowering trees can assist in the pollination of apples.

While we don’t enjoy fresh, uncooked “crabs”, birds do and so do lots of furry creatures such as possums. A friend who raises deer and has a large garden with several beautiful crabapples picks bucket loads each autumn to feed to the deer.

VARIETIES

The fruit is so attractive and ornamental that many cultivars have been developed for their large and colorful fruit. Large, of course, is relative. A large crabapple is closer in size to an oversized cherry or a small plum. Fruit colors range from golden yellow to deep red.

The Japanese crabapple (Malus floribunda) is a large tree with clusters of small red fruit. Old specimens can reach 6m or more high and wide and some can be taller than a two-story house.

However, most named varieties are much smaller in size and many are now available on a semi-dwarf rootstock, making them a suitable tree for a small garden or orchard. When grown on dwarfing rootstock, trees reach around 2–3m in height and 3–4m wide.