One of the rewards for living through long Iowa winters is the delight of spring blooming flowering crab trees.
If you have memories of flowering crab trees that dropped very large apples, or that lost all their leaves by the end of June – No Worries! New varieties of crabs no longer have these characteristics. They have either no berries(apples) or very small berries that birds will clean. The old varieties that lost their leaves by July were susceptible to a disease called cedar apple rust fungus. New varieties are resistant to this as well.
Our Top 3 Flowering Crab Tree Picks
Spring Snow - Deep green foliage with white blooms, fruitless, Grow 12-15’
Prairie Fire – Green foliage with the deepest red/pink blooms currently available, small berries that birds will clean, grow 20-25’
Camelot – A wonderful dwarf variety. Buds deep pink with blooms pink fading to white along the entire stems of the tree, small berries that birds will clean, grow 10-12’
More on Crab Trees HERE.