The Crabapple trees can be divided into two broad types, those typically grown for their fruit crop and those grown primarily for their showy springtime flowers. Crabapple fruit is green or red. Some species and cultivars have orange and pink blushes. The small fruits are 2 inches or fewer in diameter, and the tree leaves are shorter and narrower than those of apple trees. If not picked, crabapples stay on the trees and retain their vibrant colors throughout winter, providing a colorful contrast to the starkness of other plants during the season.
The blossoms that appear in spring and summer can have single, double or semi-double flowers. The centers of crabapple flowers have yellow stamens. Some crabapples bloom profusely only every other year. During spring, pink or red buds among glossy green leaves open to aromatic blossoms in hues of white, pink or red. During autumn, the foliage turns brilliant autumn colors and fruit appear.
The bark of crabapples tends to be grayish brown and scaly, making it simple to peel off. Crabapple trees generally grow 15 to 25 feet tall with an equal canopy width, providing gardeners with mid-size trees that don’t tower over their homes. The trees grow 8 to 10 inches per year, depending on the species or variety.
Crabapples are also useful as median trees where the fruit will fall away from pedestrians. Placed in the lawn area as an accent so that they receive occasional irrigation, Crabapple will give you years of wonderful flowers and showy fruit. Set it back as far as possible so that the crown will not overhang the walk, but close enough so enough so the flowers and fruits can be enjoyed.
For many years, crabapple cultivars have been selected on the basis of their flowers, but with some cultivars, undesirable features, such as disease problems and early fruit drop, outweigh their short-lived spring beauty. No single cultivar can fulfill every landscaping need.
Crabapple Varieties and Pictures
Royal Raindrops Crabapple (Malus ‘JFS-KW5’)
One of the most popular and widely planted crabapple cultivars in modern landscaping, Royal Raindrops is celebrated for its extraordinary combination of deep purple-red, deeply cut, almost lacy foliage that holds its color throughout the entire growing season without fading to green — a trait that sets it apart from many purple-leaved crabapples.
spring it produces a breathtaking display of bright magenta-pink flowers that contrast vividly against the dark foliage. Small, deep red fruits follow in late summer and persist well into winter, providing valuable food for birds. It grows to about 6 meters tall and is highly resistant to apple scab, rust, and fire blight, making it one of the most disease-resistant ornamental crabapples available.
Robinson Crabapple
Robinson is a vigorous, rounded crabapple cultivar that produces one of the most intensely colored spring floral displays of any crabapple, with deep, vivid crimson-pink to magenta flowers that cover the tree in a breathtaking cloud of rich color. The foliage emerges a warm reddish-bronze in spring, gradually maturing to a dark, somewhat bronzy green through summer.
Dark red, persistent fruits follow in autumn and winter. Robinson grows vigorously to about 6 to 8 meters with a broadly rounded crown and has demonstrated good resistance to the most common crabapple diseases, making it a reliable and long-lived specimen for larger garden and landscape settings.
Dolgo Crabapple (Malus ‘Dolgo’)
Dolgo is one of the most historically significant and widely grown fruiting crabapples in North America, introduced from Russia in 1917 and valued as much for its edible, high-quality fruit as its ornamental qualities. It is among the most cold-hardy crabapples available, thriving even in the severe winters of Canada and the northern Great Plains.
In spring it produces an outstanding display of white flowers from pink buds. The large, oblong, deep crimson-red fruits that follow in late summer are particularly notable — they are among the largest of any crabapple, up to 4cm across, and make superb, richly flavored jellies, preserves, and cider. It grows vigorously to about 10 to 12 meters.
Prairifire Crabapple (Malus ‘Prairifire’)
Prairie Rose is a vigorous, cold-hardy crabapple cultivar developed specifically for the extreme conditions of the Canadian prairies and the northern Great Plains of the United States, where reliable winter hardiness and disease resistance are paramount. It produces an abundant spring display of deep, clear rose-pink flowers that are among the longest-lasting and most weather-resistant of any pink-flowering crabapple.
The foliage is clean, mid to dark green, and disease resistant. Bright red, persistent fruits follow in autumn. It grows vigorously to approximately 6 to 8 meters with a broadly rounded crown and is considered one of the most reliable ornamental flowering trees for harsh northern climates.
Profusion Crabapple (Malus x moerlandsii ‘Profusion’)
Profusion is a classic European crabapple hybrid that has been a staple of ornamental gardens across the United Kingdom, western Europe, and North America for decades. It is identified by its semi-weeping, broadly spreading crown, deep purple-bronze foliage that emerges vividly colored in spring before fading to bronzy green in summer, and its spectacular display of deep wine-red to purple-pink flowers — among the darkest and most richly colored of any crabapple. Small, dark red, ox-blood colored fruits follow in summer and autumn, providing food for birds. It grows to about 6 to 8 meters with a broadly spreading canopy and is widely loved in UK and European gardens.
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Weeping Candied Apple Crabapple
This graceful, weeping crabapple is one of the most elegant and architecturally striking forms in the genus, producing long, arching, pendulous branches that cascade dramatically to the ground and create a distinctive umbrella or fountain-like silhouette that is beautiful in all seasons. In spring the sweeping branches are covered in deep pink to rose-red flowers.
In autumn and winter, bright red, persistent fruits hang like jewels from the weeping branches, providing exceptional ornamental value and wildlife food. It grows to approximately 4 to 5 meters tall with a wide, weeping spread, and is a spectacular specimen tree in lawn or border settings.
Siberian Crabapple (Malus baccata)
The Siberian Crabapple is a true species — one of the most cold-hardy trees in the world — native to the vast boreal forests, forest steppes, and river valleys of Siberia, Mongolia, northern China, Korea, and the Russian Far East, where it endures temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius or lower.
It forms a large, broadly spreading tree reaching 10 meters or more and produces masses of small, fragrant white flowers from pink buds in spring. The tiny, cherry-like fruits — among the smallest of any Malus species — ripen to bright red or yellow and are avidly consumed by birds. The Siberian Crabapple is extensively used in breeding programs as a parent for cold-hardy cultivars.
Sargent Crabapple
Sargent crabapple is a dwarf, deciduous tree, forming a dense, wide-spreading, irregularly-rounded silhouette, six to eight feet high by 8 to 10 feet wide. Also known as Malus sargentii, this Crabapple is a popular landscaping tree around houses and parks due to its stunning spring blooms and relatively low-maintenance care requirements.
During spring time, the tree grows buds that are deep pink in colour. They eventually become white flowers and are known by the pleasantly fragrant aroma that they are capable of spreading. Though the individual flowers are just about an inch wide, they grow in large clusters making them look quite beautiful. The flowers generally appear to be covering the entire tree.
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Florentine Crabapple
The Florentine Crabapple ( Malus florentina ) also known by the name hawthorn-leaf crabapple is an outlandish-looking tree with lobed, hawthorn-like leaves, rough to the touch and grey beneath. Its small fruits have deciduous calyces. Although it has mainly been planted in specialist collections, it has real ornamental value, making a rounded crown, with white flowers usefully late in May or even June.
Centurion Crabapple
The Centurion Crabapple is a small to medium-sized tree, reaching no more than 25 feet tall, and spreading in time to about 20 feet across. Its branches form an attractive crown, strongly branched and shaped like an inverted pyramid. The bark is mottled in shades of brown, seen most effectively in winter.
The tree grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 50 years or more. Centurion Flowering Crab is covered in stunning clusters of fragrant rose flowers along the branches in mid spring, which emerge from distinctive red flower buds before the leaves. The fruits are showy crimson pomes carried in abundance from early to late fall. It has coppery-bronze-tipped dark green foliage throughout the season. The pointy leaves turn yellow in fall.
Royalty Crabapple (Malus ‘Royalty’)
Royalty is one of the most widely planted and instantly recognizable ornamental crabapples in North American and European gardens, celebrated for its exceptionally rich, deep royal-purple foliage — arguably the darkest and most intensely purple of any crabapple — that holds its vivid color reliably throughout the entire growing season from spring to autumn.
In spring the dark foliage is joined by large, deep crimson-purple flowers that create a dramatically rich, moody color display. Dark purple-red fruits follow in autumn. It grows to approximately 6 to 7 meters with a rounded, moderately spreading crown and is a definitive choice for bold, jewel-toned landscape color.
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Pink Princess Crabapple
Pink Princess’ is a dwarf form of Sargent crabapple. Although it may be grown as a short tree (up to 8 feet tall), it is perhaps more typically grown as a broad-spreading, horizontally-branched, slightly pendulous, multi-stemmed shrub. Purplish buds open in spring to rose-pink flowers which are followed by small, deep red crabapples which mature in fall and persist into winter.
The pea-sized fruits are sweet-flavored like rose hips, but are not usually used in cooking. Birds find the small fruits quite attractive, however. Ovate, lobed leaves emerge purplish red in spring, mature to dark green and then turn yellow in autumn.
Flowering tea Crabapple
Flowering tea crabapple is composed of strong, spreading branches that form a broad, vase-shaped silhouette, 15 to 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide. The main branches are usually trained to grow from one point on the trunk and these grow long and branch infrequently, forming an open canopy that allows light to easily pass.
Abundant fragrant, light pink to white blooms appear in springtime, each 1.5-inch-diameter blossom starting out as a tight, deep pink bud. The small, .5-inch fruits which follow are outstanding, their greenish-yellow faces endowed with blushing red cheeks. Fruit is very attractive to birds. The dark grey/brown, flaking bark is quite attractive and is shown off to its best advantage when the trees are grown in containers or as an espalier.
Japanese Flowering Crabapple (Malus floribunda)
The Japanese Flowering Crabapple is one of the most beautiful and historically important crabapple species in horticulture, native to Japan — though its exact wild origin is uncertain and it may be an ancient Japanese garden hybrid rather than a true wild species. It has been cultivated in Japanese gardens for centuries and introduced to Western gardens in 1862, where it quickly became one of the most admired flowering trees.
It forms a broadly arching, spreading tree reaching 6 to 8 meters and produces one of the most spectacular spring displays of any tree — deep carmine-red buds opening to pale blush-pink and finally fading to near-white flowers in successive waves, creating a multicolored effect of extraordinary delicacy.
Sugar Tyme Crabapple
Sugar Tyme is a very popular crabapple variety. They have an upright habit with an oval crown. They can reach a height of 20 feet with a 15-foot spread. With ruby red fruit in fall through winter, beautiful green foliage through the season that turns a striking shade of bronzed-yellow in fall, and charming white flowers in spring, these deciduous trees look spectacular all year long.
Si gar Tyme is normally planted as a potted nursery specimen in the fall, or sometimes as a bare root tree. Compared to other crabapple cultivars, it is relatively fast-growing but short-lived. Sugar Tyme reaches flowering and fruiting maturity within three to five years, but the lifespan is rarely more than a couple of decades.
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Radiant Crabapple (Malus ‘Radiant’)
Radiant is a vigorous, broadly spreading crabapple cultivar that has been widely planted in North American parks and residential landscapes since the 1950s, prized for its reliable and genuinely radiant spring flowering performance.
It produces large, deep pink to carmine-rose flowers from red buds in spring, covering the spreading canopy in a vivid, warm-colored display that is among the most generous of any crabapple. Red to orange-red fruits follow in summer and autumn, ripening early — earlier than most crabapples — and providing a swift seasonal food source for birds. It grows to approximately 7 to 9 meters with a broad, spreading crown.
Whitney Flowering Crabbapple
Whitney Flowering Crabbapple is draped in stunning clusters of fragrant white flowers along the branches in mid spring, which emerge from distinctive red flower buds before the leaves. It has dark green foliage throughout the season.
The pointy leaves turn an outstanding yellow in the fall. The fruits are showy red apples with hints of yellow, which are carried in abundance from late summer to late fall. The fruit can be messy if allowed to drop on the lawn or walkways, and may require occasional clean-up.
Hopa Crabapple (Malus ‘Hopa’)
Hopa is a vigorous, old-fashioned crabapple cultivar of Russian origin that has been widely planted across North America since the early twentieth century, particularly valued for its extreme cold hardiness and its reliable, spectacular spring flower display.
It produces an extravagant show of large, deep rose-pink to magenta-red flowers from dark red buds in spring — one of the most floriferous and vividly colored spring displays of any crabapple. The foliage emerges bronze-purple and the fruits are large, deep red, and edible, used historically for making jelly and preserves. While susceptible to apple scab, its extraordinary flowering performance continues to make it popular in cold northern gardens.
European Crabapple
European crab apple is a small and thorny, native wild tree, which is distributed over most of the European countries, including all the Nordic countries except Iceland. Its scientific name, Malus sylvestris, means “forest apple”. It is found growing as single individuals or in small groups in forest edges, thickets, hedgerows or roadsides. The Tree is a deciduous tree, it will be up to 10 m (33 ft) high. The leaves are ovoid and the flowers are white – pink.
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Flowering Flame Crabapple
The name ‘Flame’ is for their bright red fruit that they get in late summer lasting into fall and even winter. It also has unique semi weeping branching but still keeps a narrow tight form making it a good fit for smaller spaces. Even with these often over looked features you will still get the eye catching beauty in the spring with bright pink buds that pop open into fragrant white flowers that seem to take over the tree.
Brandywine Crabapple (Malus ‘Brandywine’)
Brandywine is a distinctive crabapple cultivar that stands out from most others due to its unusual, large, fully double, rose-pink flowers — the petals of each bloom are layered in the manner of a small rose, creating a lush, romantic floral display in spring that is quite different from the simpler, open blooms of most crabapple species.
The flowers are also pleasantly fragrant, adding a sensory dimension rarely found in ornamental crabapples. The foliage emerges with a reddish-bronze tint and matures to green. Yellow-green fruits follow in autumn. It grows to approximately 6 meters with a rounded, vigorous crown.
Harvest Gold Crabapple (Malus ‘Hargozam’)
Harvest Gold is a vigorous, upright-spreading crabapple cultivar particularly valued for its outstanding display of persistent golden-yellow fruits — a warm, sunny color that is relatively uncommon among crabapples and provides a striking contrast to the bare winter branches. It produces abundant white flowers from pink buds in spring.
The foliage is clean, dark green, and highly disease resistant. The golden-yellow fruits develop in late summer and hang on the branches in generous clusters well into winter, brightening the garden during the dullest months and providing a valuable food source for thrushes, waxwings, and other fruit-eating birds. It grows to about 6 to 7 meters.
Tina Crabapple (Malus sargentii ‘Tina’)
Tina is a dwarf cultivar selected from the Sargent Crabapple species and is one of the smallest crabapples in cultivation, forming a remarkably compact, rounded, mounded shrub of exceptional ornamental value. It grows to only about 1.5 to 2 meters in both height and width, making it one of the few crabapples genuinely suited to very small gardens, container planting, and even large patio pots.
Despite its tiny stature, it flowers prolifically, covering itself in small white blossoms from red buds each spring, and produces masses of tiny, brilliant red fruits in autumn that persist into winter and are eagerly consumed by small birds.
Snowdrift Crabapple (Malus ‘Snowdrift’)
Snowdrift is a classic, elegant crabapple prized above all for its magnificent spring flowering display, which smothers the entire rounded canopy in a dense, unbroken blanket of pure white blossoms that open from pale pink buds — giving the tree its evocative common name.
The glossy, dark green foliage is clean and attractive throughout summer, and small, round, orange-red fruits follow in autumn, persisting into winter to feed visiting birds. It forms a dense, symmetrically rounded tree reaching 5 to 7 meters, and its excellent disease resistance, clean summer foliage, and outstanding floral performance make it one of the most enduringly popular white-flowering crabapples in cultivation.
Indian Summer Crabapple (Malus ‘Indian Summer’)
Indian Summer is a vigorous and visually striking crabapple cultivar that earns its name through its rich, warm colors throughout the growing season. It produces abundant, large, rose-red flowers in spring that are among the most intensely colored of any crabapple, followed by glossy, bright red fruits that persist well into autumn and winter.
The foliage emerges a rich purple-bronze in spring, maturing to a deep, glossy reddish-green through summer before turning brilliant orange and red in autumn, providing three distinct seasons of outstanding color. It grows to approximately 6 meters with a broadly rounded crown and exhibits strong resistance to common crabapple diseases.
Adirondack Crabapple (Malus ‘Adirondack’)
Adirondack is a distinctive crabapple cultivar developed by the U.S. National Arboretum and is immediately recognizable by its narrow, upright, columnar growth habit — an unusual form among crabapples that makes it particularly valuable in small gardens, narrow spaces, street plantings, and formal landscape designs where width is limited.
It produces abundant, large, white flowers with a faint pink tinge from red buds in spring, covering the tree in a striking vertical column of blossom. Small, persistent orange-red fruits follow in autumn. It is highly resistant to scab, fire blight, and rust, and grows to approximately 5 meters tall but only 2 meters wide.
Lollipop Crabapple (Malus ‘Lollizam’)
True to its whimsical name, the Lollipop Crabapple is a dwarf, compact cultivar with an almost perfectly round, globe-shaped crown that requires virtually no pruning to maintain its neat, symmetrical form — making it one of the most popular crabapples for small gardens, container planting, and formal landscape designs.
It produces masses of white flowers from pink buds in spring, followed by small, yellow-green fruits that ripen to a warm yellow in autumn. The foliage is clean, mid-green, and disease resistant. It grows to only about 2.5 to 3 meters in both height and width, making it the ideal crabapple for gardens where space is at a premium.
Red Jewel Crabapple (Malus ‘Red Jewel’)
Red Jewel is a compact, broadly pyramidal crabapple prized above all for the exceptional persistence and ornamental quality of its fruit display. The small, bright cherry-red fruits are produced in great abundance and remain on the bare branches throughout winter and well into early spring — providing one of the longest-lasting fruit displays of any crabapple and making it an invaluable garden tree for winter interest and wildlife value. Spring brings abundant white flowers from pink buds. The foliage is clean, dark green, and disease resistant. It grows to approximately 4 to 5 meters tall and is an excellent choice for small to medium gardens.
Donald Wyman Crabapple (Malus ‘Donald Wyman’)
Named in honor of the renowned Harvard horticulturist Dr. Donald Wyman, this crabapple cultivar is widely considered one of the finest all-purpose ornamental crabapples in existence and has received the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
It produces an outstanding spring display of white flowers opening from pink-red buds, followed by small, glossy, bright red fruits that persist on the branches through autumn and winter, turning brilliant scarlet as they ripen. The dark green foliage is highly disease resistant and remains clean and attractive throughout summer. It forms a broad, rounded tree reaching about 5 to 6 meters.
Camelot Crabapple (Malus ‘Camzam’)
Camelot is a compact, densely branched, semi-dwarf crabapple with a naturally rounded form that is highly valued for its clean, disease-resistant, deep green foliage with burgundy overtones, its deep rose-pink spring flowers, and its small, dark red persistent fruits.
The tree maintains an exceptionally tidy, symmetrical shape with minimal pruning, making it ideal for formal garden designs, low-maintenance landscapes, and smaller garden spaces. It is among the most disease-resistant crabapples available, showing excellent resistance to apple scab, rust, and fire blight. It grows to approximately 3 to 4 meters in height and spread.
Golden Raindrops Crabapple (Malus transitoria ‘Schmidtcutleaf’)
Golden Raindrops is a uniquely elegant crabapple distinguished by its finely cut, deeply lobed, almost ferny foliage — a leaf shape entirely unlike the typical broad crabapple leaf — that gives the tree a light, airy, almost lacework texture throughout summer. In spring it produces abundant small, pure white flowers in great profusion.
Small, golden-yellow fruits follow in autumn and hang in curtain-like clusters from arching branches, turning bright gold as they ripen and creating a spectacular late-season display that gives the tree its name. It grows to about 5 to 6 meters with a broadly spreading, arching crown.
Cinderella Crabapple (Malus ‘Cinderella’)
Cinderella is a charming, very compact, upright to oval dwarf crabapple that is highly valued for its suitability in small spaces and its reliable, neat, symmetrical growth habit that requires almost no pruning to maintain. It produces abundant white flowers from pale pink buds in spring, followed by small, bright yellow fruits that ripen to a warm golden-orange in autumn.
The foliage is clean, mid-green, and disease resistant. Growing to only about 2.5 to 3 meters in height, Cinderella is one of the best crabapples for very small gardens, courtyard plantings, narrow borders, and growing as a container specimen on a large patio or terrace.
Strawberry Parfait Crabapple (Malus ‘Strawberry Parfait’)
Strawberry Parfait is a broadly vase-shaped crabapple cultivar distinguished by its unusually attractive, bicolored flowers — each bloom is a soft, pale pink with a deeper rose-pink center and slightly darker petal edges, creating a layered, parfait-like effect that is more subtle and refined than many brightly colored crabapples.
The foliage is a clean, medium green with a slight purplish tint on new growth. Red to yellow-orange fruits follow in autumn. It grows to approximately 6 meters with an open, vase-shaped crown and is a popular choice in residential and commercial landscape plantings where a more refined, less flashy spring color palette is desired.
Velvet Pillar Crabapple (Malus ‘Velvetcole’)
Velvet Pillar is a striking columnar to narrowly upright crabapple with deep purple-red foliage that holds its rich color exceptionally well throughout the entire growing season, making it one of the best purple-leaved columnar trees available for narrow spaces, formal allées, and urban streetscapes.
It produces rich rose-pink flowers in spring against the dark foliage, followed by small, deep red fruits in autumn. Its exceptionally narrow, upright habit — growing to about 6 meters tall but only 1.5 to 2 meters wide — makes it uniquely valuable in situations where a colorful, upright accent tree is needed without the spread of a conventional crabapple.
Louisa Crabapple (Malus ‘Louisa’)
Louisa is one of the most graceful and beautiful weeping crabapples available, forming an elegant, broadly weeping tree with long, arching branches that sweep downward in a natural curtain of growth, ultimately reaching about 4 to 5 meters in height with an equal or greater spread.
In spring it is smothered in deep, true pink flowers from pink buds — the color is a clear, bright rose-pink rather than the purplish-red of many pink-flowered crabapples. Small, yellow fruits follow in autumn. The foliage is clean, mid-green, and highly disease resistant. Louisa is considered by many horticulturists to be the finest weeping crabapple for residential garden use.
Coralburst Crabapple (Malus ‘Coralcole’)
Coralburst is a dwarf, rounded, densely branched crabapple cultivar of exceptional ornamental value, prized for its compact, symmetrical form, its unusual coral-pink to rose-orange double flowers, and its very small stature.
The fully double flowers are unique among crabapples in their warm coral color, which is unlike the typical red, pink, or white of most cultivars and gives the tree a distinctive, warm, apricot-coral glow when in full bloom in spring. Small, reddish-bronze fruits follow in autumn. It grows to only about 2 to 3 meters and requires virtually no pruning, making it an excellent choice for small gardens and foundation plantings.
Jewel Berry Crabapple (Malus ‘Jewelberry’)
Jewelberry is a compact, mounding, semi-dwarf crabapple that earns its name from the extraordinarily ornamental quality of its fruit display. The tree produces masses of tiny, perfectly round, brilliant red fruits in autumn that hang in tight clusters from arching branches, catching the light like strings of polished garnets.
Spring brings a generous display of white flowers from pink buds. The foliage is clean, dark green, and highly disease resistant. It grows to approximately 2.5 to 3 meters in height and spread, forming a broad, dense mound, and is one of the best small crabapples for wildlife gardens due to the abundance and persistence of its berry-like fruits.
Oekonomierat Echtermeyer Crabapple
One of the oldest and most established weeping crabapple cultivars, Oekonomierat Echtermeyer has been a feature of European ornamental gardens since the late nineteenth century. It forms a dramatically weeping tree with strongly pendulous branches that sweep to the ground, creating a living curtain of growth.
In spring it produces deep purplish-pink to rose-crimson flowers from purple-red buds, covering the cascading branches in vivid color. The foliage is bronze-purple and the fruits are dark purplish-red. While somewhat susceptible to scab compared to modern cultivars, its historical pedigree and dramatic weeping form continue to make it a sought-after specimen in heritage and traditional garden settings.
Red Barron Crabapple (Malus ‘Red Barron’)
Red Barron is a vigorous, columnar to narrowly upright crabapple that is one of the most popular choices for avenue planting, street trees, and formal garden designs requiring a tall, narrow, upright form. In spring it produces abundant, deep rose-red to crimson flowers from dark red buds, clothing the upright branches in vivid color.
Dark, glossy, deep red fruits follow in autumn and persist well into winter, providing ornamental interest and bird food. The foliage is a dark, glossy, slightly bronze-green that complements the red flowers and fruit beautifully. It grows to approximately 6 to 8 meters tall but maintains a relatively tight, columnar spread of only 2 to 3 meters.
Molten Lava Crabapple (Malus ‘Molazam’)
Molten Lava is a distinctive, weeping to cascading crabapple cultivar with a unique and striking combination of ornamental features that makes it stand out in the landscape year-round. In spring it is covered in abundant white flowers from red buds. In summer its gracefully weeping branches clothed in clean, bright green foliage create an elegant, fountain-like form.
In autumn and winter its most spectacular feature emerges — masses of tiny, brilliant orange-yellow fruits that hang in dense clusters from the weeping branches like drops of molten gold, providing a vibrant color display through the coldest months and feeding birds well into winter.
Spring Snow Crabapple (Malus ‘Spring Snow’)
Spring Snow is a unique and particularly valuable crabapple cultivar in that it is essentially fruitless — it produces very few or no fruits after flowering, which makes it an ideal choice for planting near paths, patios, parked cars, and paved surfaces where falling and fermenting fruit would otherwise be a nuisance.
In spring it produces an overwhelming display of pure white, fragrant flowers that cover the entire rounded canopy in a blizzard of pristine blossom. The clean, dark green foliage that follows is highly disease resistant and remains attractive throughout summer. It grows to approximately 6 to 8 meters with a rounded, uniform crown.
Anne E Crabapple (Malus ‘Anne E’)
Anne E is a compact, disease-resistant crabapple cultivar that forms a neatly rounded, symmetrical crown and provides reliable ornamental performance across multiple seasons. It produces abundant, pure white flowers from pale pink buds in spring, creating a clean, crisp floral display.
The foliage is a glossy, mid to dark green that remains clean and disease free throughout summer. Bright, cherry-red fruits develop in late summer and persist through autumn and winter, providing a long-lasting ornamental display and valuable food for birds. It grows to approximately 4 to 5 meters and is an excellent choice for residential gardens of moderate size.
Liset Crabapple (Malus ‘Liset’)
Liset is a European crabapple cultivar of Dutch origin that has been widely planted in gardens across the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, and North America since the mid-twentieth century. It forms a compact, rounded tree and produces deep, rich crimson to purple-red flowers in spring — among the darkest and most richly colored in the genus — emerging from nearly black buds.
The foliage is a glossy, dark purple-bronze that holds its color well through summer. Small, dark ox-blood red fruits follow in autumn. It grows to approximately 5 to 6 meters and is valued for its consistently rich, dark coloring throughout the growing season.
Evereste Crabapple (Malus ‘Evereste’)
Evereste is one of the most highly recommended crabapple cultivars in the United Kingdom and western Europe, holding the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit and widely planted in parks, public spaces, and private gardens throughout the temperate world.
It forms a broadly conical to rounded tree of elegant proportions and produces abundant, fragrant white flowers from red buds in spring, covering the canopy in a spectacular display. It is particularly celebrated for its extraordinary fruit display — masses of small, round fruits that are orange on one side and yellow on the other, hanging in generous clusters and persisting through autumn and winter.
Purple Prince Crabapple (Malus ‘Purple Prince’)
Purple Prince is a vigorous, broadly rounded crabapple cultivar selected for its outstanding sustained purple foliage color — the deep, rich purple leaves hold their color throughout the entire growing season far more reliably than many other purple-leaved crabapples, which tend to fade to green by midsummer.
In spring the dark purple foliage is joined by abundant, deep rose-pink to magenta flowers that create a stunning, richly colored display. Small, dark purple-red fruits follow in autumn and persist into winter. It grows vigorously to about 6 to 8 meters, forming a broad, rounded, densely canopied tree.
Callaway Crabapple (Malus ‘Callaway’)
Callaway is a well-established crabapple cultivar particularly valued in the southern United States for its heat tolerance and adaptability to the warm, humid conditions of the Southeast — a region where many crabapples struggle with disease pressure and summer heat.
It produces an elegant display of pale pink to white flowers in spring, followed by one of the largest fruits of any ornamental crabapple — rounded, deep burgundy-red fruits up to 2.5cm across that ripen in late summer and are edible, making excellent preserves and jellies. It forms a broadly rounded tree reaching approximately 6 to 8 meters and is among the best crabapples for the American South.
Thunderchild Crabapple (Malus ‘Thunderchild’)
Thunderchild is a vigorous, upright to broadly oval crabapple native to Canadian horticulture, developed for its exceptional cold hardiness and reliable performance in the harsh prairie climates of the Canadian prairies and the northern United States. It produces abundant, single, deep rose-pink to light purple-pink flowers in spring against emerging dark purple-red foliage.
The foliage holds its dark purple color better than most crabapples through the summer heat. Small, dark red fruits follow in autumn. It grows to approximately 6 to 8 meters and is one of the most reliable ornamental crabapples for very cold climates, tolerating temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees.
Centurion Columnar Crabapple (Malus ‘Centurion’)
A sister cultivar to standard Centurion, this form is selected specifically for its strongly upright, narrow columnar habit that provides a bold vertical accent in formal and contemporary garden designs. Deep, rich rose-pink flowers from dark buds smother the upright branches in spring, and glossy, dark red, persistent fruits follow in autumn.
The foliage has a clean, slightly bronzy dark green appearance that remains attractive through summer. It grows to approximately 7 meters tall but only 3 meters wide and is widely used in municipal plantings, narrow residential front gardens, and formal avenue designs where a reliable, narrow, disease-resistant flowering tree is required.
White Angel Crabapple (Malus ‘White Angel’)
White Angel is a graceful, broadly rounded crabapple cultivar particularly valued for its exceptional, long-lasting fruit display and its reliable disease resistance. It produces an abundant, cloud-like spring display of white flowers from pale pink buds that cover the rounded canopy completely.
The real ornamental highlight, however, is its extraordinary autumn and winter fruit display — masses of tiny, perfectly round, bright cherry-red fruits packed so densely along the branches that they create a vivid beaded curtain effect that persists well into early spring. The foliage is clean, glossy, mid-green, and highly resistant to apple scab. It grows to approximately 5 to 6 meters.
Indian Magic Crabapple (Malus ‘Indian Magic’)
Indian Magic is a broadly rounded, moderately vigorous crabapple cultivar prized for its reliable multi-season ornamental performance and its particularly attractive, long-lasting fruit. Deep rose-pink to red flowers from red buds provide a vivid spring display.
The real distinction of Indian Magic lies in its fruit — small, glossy, deep red fruits that ripen to a warm, translucent orange-red by autumn, hanging in generous clusters from arching branches and creating a jewel-like display of warm colors that bridges the gap between summer and winter. The clean, dark green foliage is disease resistant and provides a handsome summer backdrop. It grows to approximately 5 to 6 meters.
Adams Crabapple (Malus ‘Adams’)
Adams is a long-established, reliable, and widely recommended crabapple cultivar developed at the Adams Nursery in Massachusetts and named for its originator. It forms a dense, broadly rounded tree of strong constitution and has earned a reputation as one of the most disease-resistant and durable crabapples for general landscape use.
In spring it produces an outstanding display of deep carmine-pink flowers from deep red buds, covering the dense canopy in vivid color. Persistent, deep red fruits follow in autumn and winter. The foliage is a clean, dark green with good resistance to scab, rust, and fire blight. It grows to approximately 6 to 7 meters.
Makamik Crabapple (Malus ‘Makamik’)
Makamik is a vigorous, large-growing crabapple cultivar of Canadian origin, developed at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa for extreme cold hardiness and reliable performance in northern climates. It is one of the most vigorous crabapples available, capable of reaching 10 meters or more, forming a large, broadly spreading tree suited to parks, large gardens, and open landscape settings rather than small residential gardens.
In spring it produces abundant, deep rose to purplish-red flowers from dark buds. The foliage is bronze-purple and the fruits are dark purple-red. It is an excellent wildlife tree providing generous crops of persistent fruit for birds and small mammals through winter.
Transcendent Crabapple (Malus ‘Transcendent’)
Transcendent is one of the oldest cultivated crabapple varieties in North America, believed to have originated in the mid-nineteenth century and widely grown by homesteaders and early settlers across the prairies and eastern United States for its productive and reliable crops of edible fruit. It produces fragrant white flowers from pink-red buds in spring.
The large, round fruits — up to 5cm across — ripen to a beautiful golden-yellow with a bright red blush and have a sweet-tart flavor that makes them excellent for fresh eating as well as for making jellies, preserves, dried fruit, and cider vinegar. It grows vigorously to approximately 8 to 10 meters and is highly cold hardy.
Eleyi Crabapple (Malus x purpurea ‘Eleyi’)
Eleyi is one of the oldest purple-leaved crabapple hybrids in cultivation, a classic Victorian-era tree that was widely planted in British and European gardens throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and remains valued for its historical pedigree and bold ornamental character.
It forms a broadly spreading tree reaching 6 to 8 meters and produces large, deep wine-red to purple-pink flowers from dark buds in spring, creating a richly colored display against the emerging purple-bronze foliage. Conical, deep purple-red fruits follow in autumn and are large enough for use in making jellies and preserves. While more susceptible to scab than modern cultivars, its classic character ensures continued appreciation in heritage and traditional garden settings.
Further References
References
1. Morton Arboretum, Crabapple: A Tree For All Seasons
2. Siberian Crabapple – Malus baccata, Morton Arboretum acc. 366-88*1, photographed by Bruce Marlin
3. Morton Arboretum, Crabapples for the Home Landscape
4. USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. (GRIN), Malus baccata
5. Edward F. Gilman and Dennis G. Watson, USDA Forest Service ST-397 Malus baccata Siberian Crabapple. Glausiusz, J., 2014. Apples of Eden: Saving the Wild Ancestor of Modern Apples, National Geographic, May 9, 2014. Available at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/apples-of-eden-saving-the-wild-ancestor-of-modern-apples/