How to Choose the Right Crabapple Tree

I always tell my customers that the three main criteria that you should consider when choosing the right crabapple tree for your yard is flower color, berry retention, and disease resistance. You may find a cultivar that you like based solely on the color of its flower, but if you don’t consider all facets of my three criteria, you may just end up with an unhealthy tree   that lacks winter interest.

Flower Color

Flowering crabapples are known for the high impact of their flowers. They generally flower in May before the lilacs, and the flowers last for 1 1/2- 2 weeks. Crabapple trees come in an assortment of different colors and can provide a beautiful way to accentuate certain parts of your yard. You can find cultivars that flower in a variety of shades, ranging from red, orange, purple, and white. It’s up to you to decide what splash of color you’d like to add to your landscaping, but remember that it’s important to pick a tree based on more than just the aesthetic appeal that their flowers provide.

Berry Retention

If you would like a flowering crabapple but do not want berries, there are sterile varieties.  However, the flowers usually only last 1 1/2 - 2 weeks while the berries can last a lot longer and provide another level of winter interest. The fruits of some crabapples begin to color in August and others don’t begin to color until September. Additionally, some cultivars drop their ripened fruit while others hold their fruit until spring, which provides a great way for you to attract migrating birds to your yard.

Disease Resistance

Flowers for crabapples are generally all great.  Berry retention is important, but choosing a healthy, disease resistant variety is of greater importance. Different plants will stand up to diseases in different ways. When picking your plant, I’d highly recommend paying close attention to their respective abilities to resist common diseases, such as Apple Scab, Fire blight, and Cedar Apple Rust.

Here’s a list of some of my favorite cultivars and their respective colors and capabilities when it comes to berry retention and disease resistance.

Your Lawn: To Roll or Not To Roll

Often customers who want to remove bumps or ups and downs in their yards ask me about rolling their lawn. The assumption is that rolling lawns will achieve a more even and level yard space. However, this is not true. In reality, rolling your lawn will cause more issues than it will solve.

Rather than flattening out your yard, all rolling does is compact the top level of soil creating much harder layers of soil for grass to grow. Soil has a structure comprised of small particles with pockets of air space in between. If you roll your lawn, you are essentially removing the air space and pushing the particles tightly together. Those pockets of space are necessary if you want to maintain a healthy lawn. Without air space, water will not infiltrate the soil properly causing lawns to brown out to dormancy quicker during periods of drought.  Additionally, if your lawn doesn’t have enough air space to allow proper circulation during wet periods, it can lead to waterlogged roots that will eventually decompose. The most obvious necessity for empty space in your soil is that you need enough space for new roots to grow.

Furthermore, your soil needs enough space to allow oxygen to pass through. I often get asked questions about tree roots coming to the surface in lawn areas. Sometimes this is the nature of the tree; like with honeylocust. However, trees that do not typically grow this way will send roots to the surface if they cannot exchange enough oxygen in the soil.

What are alternatives to lawn rolling?  The easiest way is adding soil to the low areas or shaving down high spots.  You must be careful not to disrupt the drainage pattern of your yard.

If you are interested in discussing this further please feel free to contact me.