Why I'm crazy about crab apples: Gorgeous blossom in spring, fruits that make wonderful jelly in autumn every garden should have an apple tree, says Monty Don
This is the season for apples but in the celebration of cookers and eaters, do not overlook the virtues of the humble crab apple.
I have just planted two crab apple trees in my garden, and now is the best time to plant them – as well as to enjoy their jewel-like fruits in future years.
The crab apple is one of the best small trees for any garden, giving wonderful (and early) blossom in spring and bearing its small fruits in autumn.
The crab apple is one of the best small trees for any garden, giving wonderful (and early) blossom in spring and bearing its small fruits in autumn.
Even if you do not collect up the apples for jelly-making, birds love them, as do the small mammals that will eat every last scrap of the fruits as the weather gets colder.
As well as being an excellent tree for promoting wildlife in your garden, it’s very hardy and tough and will grow in almost any soil that is not waterlogged, and in any situation.
The two I’ve planted will both produce pure white blossom in April. The first, ‘Comtesse de Paris’, has yellow fruits that remain on the tree for a very long time, until Christmas unless there is a very cold snap, in which case the birds might have a go at them.
The second, ‘Evereste’, has more conventional orange fruits. ‘Evereste’ has an upright form, whereas ‘Comtesse de Paris’ is more mop-headed and broader. Both are small trees and suitable for a small garden. I’ve planted them in borders where they will add structure without shading out any of the surrounding plants.
When planting any tree this autumn, don’t be tempted to add compost or manure to the planting hole. This will just encourage the roots to remain within this constricted space, whereas the sooner and further they grow out into the surrounding soil, the better the tree will establish itself and grow.
Save your compost for use as a thick mulch around the base of the tree once it’s planted and you’ve watered it well.
Before planting, create a small cone of soil in the middle of the hole and place the tree on top of it so the roots hang around it – this will encourage them to grow downwards and raises the tree slightly above the surrounding soil level to stop it becoming waterlogged.
The crab apple, Malus sylvestris, is native and grows wild, nearly always on its own rather than in groups or clusters. It belongs to the family Rosaceae, which also includes plums, hawthorns and rowans. For years it was used as the grafting understock for domestic apples, and you can also graft limbs of crab apples onto orchard apple trees as a means of improving pollination.
Although the fruits are small and not good to eat in their natural state, they do make a beautifully delicate and clear jelly that is delicious both on bread and, especially, scones and also as an accompaniment to meat, particularly chicken.
The flowers of the Japanese crab (Malus floribunda), introduced to this country in 1862, change from pink to white as they mature.
These flowers then develop into tiny yellow fruits. It is a low but wide-spreading tree – when fully grown it will actually be wider than it is tall. Malus sargentii is another Japanese species that never grows beyond the size of a large bush and has white flowers with gold centres and bright red fruit.
The Chinese crab, Malus hupehensis, is one of the very few apple trees that will grow true from seed. It is wide-spreading with white flowers, rather like ‘Comtesse de Paris’, but unlike the Comtesse’s yellow fruits, the Chinese crab produces a mass of bright red apples. n
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