The Crab Apple is one of the best small ornamental trees for planting on the home grounds.
It is suggested here as only one example of crab apples grown throughout the entire country wherever apples prove hardy.
Although many a majestic elm may have admirers, the flowering crabs seldom grow over 30’ feet tall, making them especially useful for smaller properties.
They are of ornamental interest at least twice a year and sometimes longer.
Showy Flowering Crab-Apple
The Japanese or showy flowering crab apple (Malus floribunda) has been in America since about 1862, when it was first brought to this country from its native Japan.
It is rounded inhabit, with very dense branching, and if left alone, will grow into an impenetrable, rounded, dense mass of branches and foliage touching the ground.
Some gardeners prefer to have the trunk bare of branches several feet off the ground, but the foliage is so dense that it is most difficult—if not impossible to grow grass underneath it unless the branches are cut off 6’ feet from the base.
The flower buds are small and red, and the flowers are white and about 1 ½” inches in diameter.
In early May, there is a period before the buds are fully open when the red flower buds and the pure white flowers make a gorgeous color combination.
The fruits are about ⅜” inches in diameter and are either red or yellow, beginning to color in late August and remaining on the tree until mid-October, when the birds have eaten most of them.
The colorful spring flowers and these brightly colored fall fruits make the tree outstanding in the landscape a least twice each year.
This is more than can be said of the Japanese cherries, which are very beautiful in flower but are not the least ornamental in fruit.
Problem-Free Oriental Crab-Apples
None of these oriental crab apples are susceptible to the disfiguring juniper rust, which attacks some of the crab apples native to America, especially the common favorite, Bechtel’s crab.
Nor do they require the frequent spraying necessary to produce a commercial crop of apples.
A spray once every 2 or 3 years to control scale insects, if present, is the most important consideration, and possibly once a year if leaf-eating insects disfigure the foliage.
This is one of the best of all the crab apples, but nearly 100 others are available.