Flowering Crabapple Trees: Four Seasons of Beauty

Crabapple trees are one of the most giving trees in the garden. They start in spring, clothing themselves in massive billows of bright blooms, filling the air with their welcome fragrance. In summer, their sturdy branches provide a safe home for birds and their young, and shade for delicate flowers in the garden. In the fall, many varieties blaze with color before they drop their leaves. In winter, they provide a source of food for birds and other animals.

I am passionate about crabapple trees, their beauty, and their wonderful giving nature. I hope to encourage others to plant one in their yard by sharing this lens with you. Please share it with others if you find it useful or inspiring.

Blooms, glorious blooms!

Crabapple trees are known for their beauty as an ornamental tree in the home landscape. They cover their branches in blooms for two to three weeks every spring, if undisturbed by wind or rain. Their early flowering provides a welcome source of food for bees and butterflies, after a long, lean winter. White flowering trees look stunning against homes with dark exterior paint schemes. Pink and red blooms enhance homes with white or light color pallets. We have one of each. The picture in the introduction is of our deep-pink flowering "Profusion" in the front of our light-colored house. We have a lovely white tree in the back, where it is mostly seen against the green of the backyard lawn.

Crabapple trees develop a thick canopy of leaves in summer. Many varieties have the added interest of leaves that are in colors other than green, or of unusual shapes. Our "Profusion" tree out front has lovely bronzy-red colored leaves in late spring, and turn rich green in summer. It looks great against the tan color of our house. Our "Golden Raindrops" tree out back has the most beautifully shaped leaves I have ever seen on a crabapple tree. They are deeply lobed and look almost like an oak leaf. This gives a beautiful, lacy look to the tree in summer.

Birds find the limbs to be very friendly and love to set up house on their branches. The dense growth of the leaves provides protection from the rain and conceals the nest and growing family from unfriendly eyes. I have also noticed that butterflies seem to enjoy crabapple trees, even after the flowers are gone. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but they can be seen flitting among the branches from leaf to leaf. Perhaps the leaves give off a pleasant aroma that attracts the butterflies or maybe they can pick up traces of minerals or sweetness from the leaves? Whatever the reason, butterflies love my crabapple trees in summer

Crabapple trees have done their duty for the summer, hosting families of robins, warblers, and hummingbirds in their branches. In the fall, many varieties clothe themselves in brilliant color in farewell to their feathered friends. Our "Profusion" tree out front turns a rich red before it drops it's leaves, leaving behind an abundance of small, ruby-red fruit. Our "Golden Raindrops" tree out back is simply breathtaking! The oak-shaped leaves literally glow in a brilliant golden-yellow with each leaf neatly trimmed with a bright red rim. When the leaves fall, the golden glow remains in the form of small golden fruit covering the branches. You can almost see the birds drooling in anticipation of the feast to come. The fruit is hard still, and it will need a few frosts before it is soft enough for the birds to eat.

You can pick crabapples for canning or making jelly. They are naturally rich in pectin and make good jelly. They also add dimension and tang to homemade cider. It is, in fact, the secret ingredient of one of the best cider houses in Vermont, Cold Hollow Cider Mill. If you plan to use crabapples for cider or jelly, large-fruited varieties are best. Small fruits just don't have enough juice to be worth the effort. Leave the small crabapples for the birds to help them through winter.

In winter, crabapple trees become a banquet for wildlife when food is scarce or difficult to find due to snow cover. The best varieties for winter-feeding have small fruit that stays on the branches all winter. Trees that drop their fruit when ripe only benefit wildlife briefly in the fall. Their fruit will litter the ground, making it available only for a short time.

The fruit soon rots, benefiting only the tree as fertilizer. People also view the dropped fruit as an unsightly mess. Trees that hold their fruit, however, are a different story altogether. The fruit retains its color for a long time, adding interest to the winter landscape. It also softens in the cold weather, making it easy for birds to eat. Most of the fruit will stay on the tree, but some will fall, feeding the ground-dwelling animals as well. Our crabapple trees have become a focal point of the wildlife in our neighborhood. The animals that I have seen enjoying the fruit are; birds, deer, rabbits, possums, and many more that leave their tracks, but that I never see.

Many people don’t realize that even bluebirds will stay through winter if they have a consistent food source and shelter. We have a pair of bluebirds that live in our yard year-round, even though we live in the cold Northeastern United States. We don’t usually think of bluebirds as fruit-eating birds, but they eat from our crabapple trees all winter. We also leave our birdhouses up to shelter them from icy winds and snow.

The full value of a crabapple tree that holds it’s fruit through the winter is revealed as winter melts into spring. Food is very scarce at this time, just as birds begin returning from the south. Our trees are the first stop for birds returning from their southern wintering grounds. I have counted up to a dozen or so robins in the tree at one time, in early February, feasting on the crabapples still hanging on the tree. We had a new visitor this year, a possum. He would come in broad daylight and spend a couple of hours lounging in the branches and daintily eating crabapples. He was the thrill of the neighborhood children since possums are usually more secretive and nocturnal.

So, now you are excited and ready to buy your crabapple tree. What should you look for in order to choose a tree that is best suited for your home environment? Here is the basic information you should be aware of to select a tree that will be successful in your garden.

Zones: Crabapples can be grown in most areas of the United States. Generally, they are winter hardy to zone 4 and can tolerate the heat up to zone 8. Some varieties have been specially developed to grow and bloom beyond those zones. Most local nurseries will only stock trees that will grow successfully in your area. If you are buying from a catalogue or online, check the growing zone information carefully before you purchase your tree.

Color: In general, choose a tree that will complement the color of your home. Trees with dark blooms look better with light color houses and visa-versa. Most people think only of flower color when determining what crabapple tree to buy, but there are many more things to consider about color besides the blossoms.

Some trees have interesting colors in their leaves. Our “Profusion” tree out front starts out with reddish-bronze leaves in spring that compliment its pretty, pink flowers. The leaves change to deep green in summer, setting off the ruby-red fruit. Some trees, like our “Golden Raindrops” give a spectacular show in fall, with blazing gold or red leaves.

There is also the color of the fruit to consider. For trees that hold their fruit over the winter, red or golden fruit can add interest to an otherwise bleak landscape.

Height and Spread: Most crabapple trees do not get very tall, making them a nice accent for the front of your home. They also usually spread in proportion to their height. Some grow in weeping or dwarf forms giving you an even more compact look for tighter spaces. One tree even grows like a column, spreading very little over time. Make sure that the tree you pick will fit in the spot you are going to plant it in, taking into account room for future growth.

• "Golden Raindrops" - Pink buds to white blooms - Golden fruit - Oak-shaped leaves turn gold in fall
• "Red Jade" - White blooms - Red fruit - Lovely weeping form
• "Molten Lava" - Red fruit - Weeping habit with pretty yellow bark
• "Sargent" - White blooms - Red fruit - Shrubby dwarf variety - Sometimes blooms and fruits profusely in alternate years
• "David" - Pink buds to white blooms - Red fruit - Blooms heavily alternate years
• "Lancelot" - Red buds to white blooms - Golden fruit - Dwarf variety with golden yellow leaves in the fall

• "Centurion" - Rosy red - Red fruit - Unusual columnar form that spreads a little with age
• "Indian Magic" - Deep pink flowers - Orange-red fruit
• "Indian Summer" - Rosy red blooms - Bright red fruits - Bronzy Green foliage turns orange-red in fall
• "Louisa" - Pink blooms - Yellow fruit - Lovely weeping dwarf variety with a true umbrella shape
• "Prariefire" - Red buds to purplish red blooms - Purplish-red fruit - Green leaves blaze orange-red in fall
• "Profusion" - Deep pink flowers - Maroon fruit - Interesting change of color in leaves over the season from purple to bronzy-green
• "Radiant" - Red buds to pink blooms - Red fruit - Foliage starts purple in spring changing to green in summer
• "Robinson" - Deep pink blooms - Red fruit - Fast growing tree with unusual bronze leaf color
• "Thunderbird" - Rosy pink blooms - Purplish-red fruit - Unusual purple leaf color

My poor Profusion crabapple tree. It has been languishing all summer one year. I noticed there was something wrong in early summer when it appeared that the tree didn't have any fruit. At first, I thought that maybe the blossoms didn't get pollinated, due to the unusually long, wet spring we had that year (2011). It wasn't until later in the summer, when all the leaves were turning yellow and dropping off that I got truly alarmed. I noticed that nearly all the red-flowering crabapples in the area (that I knew about) were suffering the same fate. An investigation and a little research determined the cause: Apple Scab. It is a fungus that can develop in wet weather, can cause fruit not to set, and leaves to fall. It seems that red-flowering trees are especially susceptible to this disease.

It made me so sad to see my beautiful tree looking like this. I was especially concerned about the birds and animals that used this tree for food in the winter. Our Golden Raindrops crabapple in the back (a white-flowered tree) was fine and will bear fruit. I was thinking of making a feeder for the birds to provide raisins for them in lieu of the crabapples. If your tree has suffered from Apple Scab, you might want to do this too.

For more information on diseases of crabapple trees, click on the link below. Most fungal diseases can be fought, and are usually not lethal to the tree. Bacterial diseases will kill your tree. It is important to know how to prevent conditions that foster the growth of pathogens. It is also important to know if the tree you want to buy is susceptible to any diseases before you buy.

This year was hard on my poor "Profusion" crabapple tree out front. We had an early warm-up in the Spring of 2012 that brought on early flowering. A week later, we had snow again. This killed most of the buds, and as a result, we had few crabapples that year. That was the second year in a row that we had little to no crabapples on the tree due to weather.

Again, our "Golden Raindrops" tree out back was completely unaffected. It bloomed about two weeks later than the pink flowering "Profusion," so it completely missed the deadly warm-up/freeze cycle we had that spring. It bloomed fully and was loaded with tiny, golden crabapples for the birds this winter.

Advice: The pink flowering crabapple is beautiful, and I love it, but I am beginning to favor my white-flowering "Golden Raindrops" crabapple tree. It has come through two difficult springs unscathed, and in fact, is thriving. If you are thinking of planting crabapple trees for winter food for local wildlife, consider using white-flowering crabapples, or at least a mix of white and pink. This would ensure the best chance of a healthy crop of crabapples for the birds to enjoy through the winter.