Plant, Tree & Shrub Library

Other Names:  Roseybloom, Crabapple

Description:

An excellent ornamental tree for home landscape use, featuring highly fragrant white flowers in spring, then large crab apples with a pleasant, nutty flavor and good texture; hardy, with a spreading habit of growth; needs well-drained soil and full sun

Ornamental Features

Chestnut Crab Apple is covered in stunning clusters of fragrant white flowers along the branches in mid spring, which emerge from distinctive pink flower buds before the leaves. The fruits are showy red apples carried in abundance from early to mid fall. The fruit can be messy if allowed to drop on the lawn or walkways, and may require occasional clean-up. It has dark green deciduous foliage. The pointy leaves turn yellow in fall.

This plant is primarily grown as an ornamental, but it's also valued for its edible qualities. The large round distinctive apples are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Cooking
• Baking
• Preserves

Landscape Attributes

Chestnut Crab Apple is a deciduous tree with a more or less rounded form. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a high maintenance tree that will require regular care and upkeep, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Messy
• Disease

Chestnut Crab Apple is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Shade
• Orchard/Edible Landscaping

Planting & Growing

Chestnut Crab Apple will grow to be about 20 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 20 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 4 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 50 years or more. This variety requires a different selection of the same species growing nearby in order to set fruit.

This tree should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.