Crabapples

Description

Crabapples

Crabapples are a tremendously diverse group of apples. All are members of the rose family but are divided into many species and hybrids between those species. Crabapples come in a variety of forms and bloom colors. Fruit size, which is what puts them in the crabapple category, must be less than 3″ in diameter. Fruit can be tiny like bb’s or as large as a small apple. Most crabapples are very tart or astringent but some are quite sweet and are prized for sauce and cider. The astringent varieties are often used to add complexity to the flavor of hard ciders.

The trees themselves are generally small to medium in height though there are a few dwarfs.  Most of the common crabapples are a standard apple form but upright and weeping forms exist. We have chosen varieties that have good disease resistance. Several are large fruited edible varieties.

Crabapples are well known for their tremendous spring bloom. They are a good concentrated nectar source for honeybees and other pollinators.

We cannot ship Crabapples to ID

Chestnut Crabapple Sold Out

The Chestnut Crabapple is a heavily blooming large fruited crabapple. The fruit is large enough to eat out of hand with a sweet rich apple flavor. The fruit is a russeted orange red over a golden yellow background. The fruit is very good for apple sauce and cider.

Plenty of beautiful flowers for your bees and plenty of good apples to boot, what more could you ask for!

 

Geneva Crabapple Now Available

The Geneva Crabapple is a wonderful Crabapple. It is decorative with its mahogany red foliage follows a tremendous bright pink bloom. The ripe fruit is large for a crabapple and has a red skin with red flesh surrounding a white core. The fruit ripens in September and October and is very tart. Pressed for cider it is a high acid, low sugar juice that gives a complexity to sweeter cider blends. It is a good choice for red cider

It is a seedling of Niedzweckyana Crabapple and was selected at the Ottawa Experiment Station in Ottawa New York.

It ripens early but is a great component in a wildlife planting. It is partially self fertile but needs a pollinator to be fully productive.

Hewes Crabapple  Sold Out Join Our Wait List  

 

Hewes Crabapple is a crabapple with a long history in America. It originated in the 1700s as a hybrid seedling of the North American native southern crabapple Malus angustifolia and a cultivated apple of some sort. The result was the Hewes Crabapple which became the most popular apple planted in Virginia for over 100 years. The cider was so highly praised that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew it. Thomas Jefferson planted his entire north orchard to Hewes.

The tree is small as is the fruit. When pressed for cider, the juice is cinnamon flavored, sugary and pungent. It makes a dry cider that ferments slowly. It makes a fine cider by itself or blends well with other apples to add flavor and complexity. It ripens in September.

Crabapples have copious blooms that supply nectar and pollen for all kinds of pollinators.

 

Prairie Fire Crabapple Sold Out Join Our Wait List 

Prairie Fire Crabapple is a hot pink/red flowering crabapple with red leaves that fade to dark reddish green as summer progresses. It was developed as a byproduct of the PRI apple breeding program. Dr. Daniel Dayton released this outstanding crabapple in 1982.

Hardy in zones 3 to 9

After bloom it is covered in small red crabapples that linger into late winter when the winter birds need them the most. Deer and turkeys love crabapples

 

 

Prairie Crabapple  Sold Out 

Prairie Crabapple- Malus ioensis is a native crabapple of the mid-west United States. It is a small tree that can be a stand alone tree or form a small mounded grove.  The trees produce copious fragrant flowers in spring. The flower buds are pink opening to a blushed white petaled flower. The twigs are sometimes thorny and the bark on mature trees is coarse and flaky.

The fruit is small, 1″ to 1 1/4″ and green. It is edible but not particularly tasty. The fruit is eaten by many kinds of wildlife and birds. As a native tree, many insects, moths and butterflies depend on it to feed their larvae

 

 

 

Whitney Crabapple  Sold Out Join Our Wait List 

The Whitney Crabapple is a golf ball sized sweet edible crabapple. The color is red streaked over yellow green. It originated in Franklin Grove Illinois in 1869.

This is an all around good crabapple, cold hardy, heat tolerant, disease resistant and self pollinating. It is hardy in zones 3 to 9.

Fruit ripens in late August through mid-September. Good for fresh eating, cider(both hard and sweet) and apple jellies