Malus spp.- Flowering Crabapple
Description
Leaves: Vary widely based on cultivar. Come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors.
Bark: Shiny gray brown, scaly.
Flowers: White to pink to red to rose. Occur in umbels or racemes and are sweetly fragrant. Spring blooming.
Fruit: A pome up to 2” that is red, yellow or green. If the pome is greater than 2,” the tree is considered an apple.
Attributes: Effective as specimens, in groups, as screens or hedges. Also, as a lawn or patio tree.
Culture
Growing Conditions: Prefers moist, well drained, acid soil in full sun.
Maintenance: As crabapple are susceptible to a vast, unending list of diseases and insect issues, one should take great care in choosing cultivars bred for resistance. Issues include, but are not limited to, fireblight, cedar apple rust, apple scab, canker, scale, borers, aphids, Japanese beetles, leaf spot and powdery mildew.
Transplanting: Crabapples are soil adaptable and easily transplanted.
Our Experience
Experience at Great Hill
We feature several disease resistant crabapple cultivars on Great Hill including Malus x zumi ‘Calocarpa’, Malus ‘Centzam’, Malus ‘Mary Potter,’ and Malus hupehensis ‘Strawberry parfait.’ Each of our crabapples are tree forms, a couple of which are dwarf. Spring flowering is reliable and fantastic. Despite the resistance inherent in our cultivars , we still regularly spray to keep our specimens better protected from disease and insect damage. A defoliated apple in the summer is not a pretty sight. Its important to keep any apples away from juniper so as not to develop cedar apple rust, and if pruning must be done, it should be directly after flowering so as not to remove any of the following years buds.
2023
Malus Bloom Data 2023
Plant Name | Bud Break | Full Bloom | Bloom Drop |
---|---|---|---|
x Zumi 'Calocarpa' | April 22 | May 8 | May 16 |
'Centzam' | April 26 | May 17 | June 18 |
hupehensis 'Strawberry Parfait' | April 26 | May 12 | May 18 |
'Mary Potter' | April 19 | May 10 | May 17 |
'Velvet Pillar' | April 19 | May 15 | May 18 |
2022
Malus Bloom Data 2022
Plant Name | Bud Break | Full Bloom | Bloom Drop |
---|---|---|---|
x Zumi 'Calocarpa' | April 23 | May 12 | May 20 |
'Centzam' | April 27 | May 10 | May 21 |
hupehensis 'Strawberry Parfait' | April 22 | May 8 | May 16 |
'Mary Potter' | April 19 | May 12 | May 21 |
'Velvet Pillar' | April 28 | May 12 | May 20 |