Plant, Tree & Shrub Library

Other Names:  Roseybloom, Crabapple

Description:

An exciting new introduction, this is a very hardy, narrowly upright to columnar ornamental tree with showy pink flowers followed by smallish purple fruit and rich burgundy-purple leaves all season; use for its distinctive form

Ornamental Features

Gladiator Flowering Crab is covered in stunning clusters of fragrant pink flowers along the branches in mid spring, which emerge from distinctive rose flower buds before the leaves. It has attractive deep purple deciduous foliage which emerges burgundy in spring. The pointy leaves are highly ornamental and turn yellow in fall. The fruits are showy purple pomes carried in abundance from early to late fall.

Landscape Attributes

Gladiator Flowering Crab is a dense multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with a narrowly upright and columnar growth habit. 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 shrub that will require regular care and upkeep, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Gladiator Flowering Crab is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Vertical Accent
• Hedges/Screening

Planting & Growing

Gladiator Flowering Crab will grow to be about 20 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 9 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 1 foot 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 40 years or more.

This shrub 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.