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Orange Pippin Trees USA logoSpecialist fruit trees for your orchard or back-yard

Crab apple trees

Crab apples produce a mass of spring blossom, followed by attractive ornamental fruits which can also be used for cooking. We can advise on the best crab apple trees to suit your garden.

  • Centennial Crab

    $37.95buy
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 3
  • Chestnut Crab

    Chestnut Crab crab apple tree
    A large-fruited cold-hardy crab-apple.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 3
  • Dolgo

    Dolgo crab apple tree
    Malus Dolgo, also known as Pink Glow, offers early-season white flowers and dark pink fruits.
    $37.95buy
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 2
  • Geneva Crab

    A large-fruited red-fleshed crab apple, useful for cider blends.
    $37.95buy
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 3
  • Golden Hornet

    Golden Hornet crab apple tree
    Malus Golden Hornet has pink / white blossom then small yellow crab apples which hang on late in the year.
    • Picking season: Very late
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 5
  • Hewe's Virginia

    Hewe's Virginia crab apple tree
    Best seller
    Also known as Virginia Crab, Hewe's Crab is considered one of the best varieties for cider.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 3
  • Kerr

    Kerr crab apple tree
    A cold-hardy crab-apple, primarily used for cider and cooking.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 2
  • Northland Crab

    Northland Crab is a cold-hardy crab apple, ideal for crab-apple jelly.
    $37.95buy
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 3
  • Puget Spice®

    Puget Spice crab apple tree
    An unusual crab-apple, related to two mainstream apples, and best considered a bittersharp cider apple.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Pollination group: 3
  • Roberts Crab

    Roberts Crab crab apple tree
    An unusual red-fleshed crab-apple which has large purple fruits. The juice is a claret red colour.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 2
  • Transcendent Crab

    A large-fruited crab apple, cold-hard, and makes excellent crab-apple jam.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 3
  • Wickson Crab

    Wickson Crab crab apple tree
    Best seller
    Wickson crab is a popular crab apple variety which is also useful in cider blends.
    $37.95buy
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Pollination group: 2


How to choose Crab apple trees

Flowering crab apples (Ornamental malus) are very closely related to apples, being part of the same genus Malus, in the family Rosaceae. The only difference between an apple and a crabapple is the size of the fruit, and it is usually considered that any apple variety with a fruit size of less than 2" is a crabapple.

Crab apple trees are grown primarily for their ornamental value. This starts in spring with a profusion of attractive blossom, which is often scented. The brightly coloured ornamental fruits hang attractively on the tree throughout autumn, providing colour in the garden and a source of food for birds. Some varieties also have attractive bronze leaves.

Most crab apples are edible - although rather unpalatable for eating fresh. However many varieties are valuable for cooking - crab apples contain large amounts of pectin, and are useful in the kitchen for making fruit jellies. Several varieties are also useful for hard cider blends.

The prolific blossom also makes most flowering crab apples excellent pollinators for all other apple and cider-apple varieties - they typically produce five to ten times more pollen than a regular apple tree. The blossom is also usually more long-lasting than that of normal apples, and spans several of the mainstream apple flowering groups. Crab apples are naturally precocious and will often start producing blossom and fruit in their 2nd or 3rd years.