Plant Family Guides: Malus---Crabapples Guides
Hardiness
How To Choose The Right Flowering Crabapple for Your Garden
Most gardeners are unaware of the wide range of characteristics offered by Malus species and their cultivars in terms of flower color, fragrance, fruit color, fruit retention, fall foliage, tree shape, and disease resistance. These are key elements to consider when selecting a flowering crabapple. Consequently, you should not eliminate varieties merely by flower color alone, or you may end up with a less than optimum tree with limited interest.
Flowering Crabapples with Persistent Fruit
From fall into winter, crabapples put on a terrific display of colorful fruit in a wide array of colors, including pale lime, chartreuse with yellow highlights, various shades of gold often rouged with pink, orange, or bright red cheeks, bright orange, crimson, carmine, burgundy or even bishop's purple. If persistent, their color parade can be enjoyed for months unless hungry birds feast on them.
Great Companion Plants For Your Flowering Crabapples
Spectacular on their own, flowering crabapples can hold center stage across the seasons by themselves. However, their magnificence can be enhanced by companion plants that will frame and accent their beauty.
Best Flowering Crabapples for the Mid-Atlantic Region
Crabapples are susceptible to four major diseases (apple scab, fire blight, cedar-apple rust, powder mildew), which can cause early defoliation, disfigurement and weakening of trees. Powdery mildew is a problem in the Middle Atlantic region. Here is a list of varieties and cultivars that consistently perform well in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
Best Flowering Crabapples for Midwestern Gardens
Flowering crabapples are choice garden trees with their springtime clouds of fragrant blossoms and their fall colorful fruits. When selecting a flowering crabapple variety for your garden, consider its ornamental features (flowers, fruit display, etc.), size and growth habit, and importantly, its disease-resistance. Here is a list of varieties and cultivars that consistently perform well in Midwestern gardens.
Best Flowering Crabapples for New England
Among the most prized of ornamental trees, flowering crabapples are best known for their spectacular display of magnificent blooms in spring and colorful fall fruit. However, crabapples are susceptible to four major diseases which can cause early defoliation, disfigurement and weakening of trees. Here is a list of varieties and cultivars that consistently perform well in New England.
Best Flowering Crabapples for the Pacific Northwest Region
The Pacific Northwest may not be the best place to enjoy the long-lasting beauty of flowering crabapples. Many older crabapple varieties grown in the past adapted poorly to the cool, constant humidity of the region. Diseases such as apple scab and powdery mildew took their toll. However, breeders have been busy improving the disease-resistance of flowering crabapples. Here is a list of varieties and cultivars that consistently perform well in the Pacific Northwest Region.
Best Flowering Crabapples for Southern Gardens
Among the most prized of ornamental trees, flowering crabapples are best known for their spectacular display of magnificent blooms in spring and colorful fall fruit. However, crabapples are susceptible to four major diseases which can cause early defoliation, disfigurement and weakening of trees. Here is a list of varieties and cultivars that consistently perform well in Southern Gardens.
Native Plant Alternatives to Malus hupehensis (Tea Crabapple)
Malus hupehensis (Tea Crabapple) is listed in the Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States. The federal government has estimated that nearly 25 percent of the 20,000 plant species native to North America are at risk of extinction, many of these through habitat loss. You can help reverse this trend by planting great native plants in your garden.
Create the garden you’ve always wanted
Please Login to Proceed
You Have Reached The Free Limit, Please Subscribe to Proceed
Join Gardenia.net
Create a membership account to save your garden designs and to view them on any device.
Becoming a contributing member of Gardenia is easy and can be done in just a few minutes. If you provide us with your name, email address and the payment of a modest $25 annual membership fee, you will become a full member, enabling you to design and save up to 25 of your garden design ideas.
Join now and start creating your dream garden!