Crabapples with Winter Interest

Crabapples (Malus) are very popular small trees, especially grown, with good reason, for their beautiful spring flowers, but most do have additional attractions, such as colorful foliage or fruits large enough to be used in cooking.

My favorites, though, are the crabapples extend their interest beyond the growing season with fruits that persist well into the winter, quite often until March. Usually these are small-berried varieties, but even if the fruits are small, that doesn’t mean they can’t create a super showing during the winter… or attract fruit-eating birds!

Before presenting my list of crabapples with winter interest, please note that I have subtracted from the list below varieties that are overly susceptible to apple diseases, such as scab and bacterial blight. After all, who wants to treat an ornamental tree with fungicides to keep it in good condition? At least, that’s my attitude as a laidback gardener. All the varieties presented below have a good to excellent resistance to most common crabapple diseases, such as scab, bacterial blight, powdery mildew, and cedar-apple rust. (“Good resistance” means that the disease is present, but the symptoms are so minor there is no need to treat them.)

Crabapples are easy to grow trees, adapting to sunny locations in any well-drained soil and most are also very cold hardy. Their fairly small size means you can grow many of them under power lines without having to prune them.

11 Crabapples with Winter Interest

M. ‘Adams’: Rounded habit. Red buds open to semi-double pink flowers. Very small red berries. Oddly, the birds don’t seem to like its fruit. Dimensions: 20 ft x 20 ft (6 m x 6 m). Zone 4.

M. ‘Adirondack’: narrow erect habit. Dark pink buds, white flowers with dark pink margin. Fruits orange red. Dimensions: 18 ft x 10 ft (5.5 m x 3 m). Zone 4.

M. baccata ‘Jacki’: fairly upright habit. Pinkish white buds, very fragrant white flowers. Purple fruit. Dimensions: 30 ft x 18 feet (9 m x 5.5 m). Zone 3.

M. ‘Guinevere’: rounded habit. Mauve and white flowers. Bright red fruit. Dimensions: 8 ft x 15 ft (2.5 m x 4.5 m). Zone 4.

M. ‘Jewelberry’: rounded habit. Pink flowers. Small red fruits. Dimensions: 18 ft x 12 ft (4,5 m x 3,5 m). Zone 4.

M. ‘Molten Lava’: weeping habit. Cherry red buds, white flowers. Fruits reddish orange. Dimensions: 18 ft x 12 ft (4,5 m x 3,5 m). Zone 4.

M. Perpetu ‘Evereste’: rounded habit. Dark green leaves. Red buds, white flowers. Orange-yellow fruits. 6 m x 5 m. Zone 4

M. ‘Prairifire’: upright spreading habit, eventually rounded. Bright pink flowers. Purple foliage in spring turning reddish-green in summer. Reddish bark. Dark red fruits. Dimensions: 20 ft x 20 ft (6 mx 6 m).

M. sargentii: Low and spreading. Abundant small white flowers. Small bright red fruits. Dimensions: 8 ft x 12 ft (2.5 m x 3.5 m). Zone 4.

M. sargentii ‘Tina’: Very small rounded tree grafted on an upright stem. Red buds, small white flowers. Red berries. Dimensions: 5 ft x 6 ft (1.5 m x 2 m). Zone 4.

M. ‘Sugar Tyme’: oval spreading habit. Pale pink buttons, fragrant white flowers. Red fruits. Dimensions: 18 ft x 15 ft (5.5 m x 4.5 m). Zone 4.

M. x zumi ‘Calocarpa’: broad, rounded habit. Pink buds, small fragrant white flowers. Small bright red berries. 25 ft x 30 ft (6 m x 7.3 m). Zone 5.

Good gardening!