Crabapples

Crabapples are small deciduous trees grown for spring blossom and the fruit that follows it, and they fit gardens where a full-size shade tree would be too much. The canopy stays open and light, so lawn, groundcovers and perennials keep growing underneath. They work as a single focal point near a front entry, out in a lawn, or repeated down a driveway. Choose one if you want a garden that changes clearly with the seasons and you have an open position in full sun. They stand bare through winter and they are not a screen, so plant them for the display rather than for cover.

Stock runs from bare root and 200mm pots up through 300mm and 400mm into 45L, 100L, 150L and 200L, with a few lines at 300L and 1000L, so you can start small or plant something with presence on day one. Japanese Crabapple, Malus floribunda is the traditional choice, a wide arching frame that flowers heavily, and it is stocked right across the range, from 330mm up to 300L. Royal Raindrops is grown for foliage as much as for flower, with deeply cut purple leaves and small dark fruit. Raspberry Spear is the narrow one, upright and column-shaped, and the pick for a tight bed or a driveway edge where a spreading crown would be in the way; it comes in 300mm to 400mm pots only. Plena, Malus ioensis carries double blossom and sets very little fruit, which matters where a tree overhangs paving. Malus tschonoskii grows upright rather than wide and is planted mainly for its autumn colour. Echtermeyer is the weeping form, grafted as a tall standard, so the height the branches fall from is set when you buy it. Profusion and Wychwood Ruby are also offered bare root over winter.

Plant in full sun in soil that drains freely. These are cold-tolerant trees that want a real winter, so they perform reliably in temperate and cool districts and are a poor bet in the humid subtropics. Bare root trees go in while dormant and want the roots kept covered and damp right up until planting. Keep the water up through the first two summers. Shape the tree in late winter while it is bare, taking out crossing limbs and anything growing back into the centre.

The thing that ruins crabapples in Australian gardens is fungal leaf disease, mainly apple scab. Through a wet, humid summer the leaves blotch black, yellow off and fall, and a tree can be close to bare by February. It seldom kills a healthy tree outright, but it wrecks the display and weakens the tree over successive seasons. Space plantings so air moves through the canopy, water at ground level instead of over the foliage, and bin fallen leaves rather than composting them, because the spores carry over in the litter.

The collection also carries edible apple varieties alongside the ornamental crabapples, so check fruit trees if you want a crop rather than a display. For a similar spring show, compare flowering cherries; for other single specimens see feature trees, or advanced trees for the larger sizes. Every order ships farm-direct with flat $99 delivery across QLD, NSW, VIC, SA, ACT and WA, a $399 minimum order, and the 30-Day Healthy Plant Guarantee.