A few good deciduous tree choices... post #3

I really can't blog about good deciduous trees without including a couple of flowering crab apples. We have a lot of problems with fungal diseases in this part of the world so I've been replacing some of my crab apples with ones that are more disease resistant. I will mention several that are performing very well for me throughout the season.

For starters, I have to include any flowering crabs with sargentii in the parentage. These have shown no fungal leaf problems and good resistance to fireblight which I was hit with several years ago, and which wiped out a number of my apple trees and flowering crab apples. Another plus for these cultivars is the very small and colorful fruit which maintains a presence for much of the winter.

Here then is Mary Potter which is an outstanding plant reaching 12-15' in height and a width of at least 20'. I have been expanding on this wider than tall aspect of the tree in my recent pruning, endeavoring to create an oriental feel to the plant, but the first photo below is prior to the recent 'big' pruning.

While Mary Potter is very attractive in full bloom, bloom season obviously doesn't last all that long. The longer I garden the more I realize that flowering crab apples really need to be much more than just a 'blob' of blossoms on the landscape for two weeks of the year. A flowering crab is much more effective when pruned for interesting branch structure which does much to make it a four season plant. In the next photo, I have started the pruning process... while not complete, the branch structure is becoming much more evident...

Many trees of the sargentii lineage tend towards alternate year bloom. This doesn't mean that there will be lack of bloom every other year, but rather that the bloom is much heavier in alternate years. Pictured below is the fruiting of Mary Potter...

I like the blooming progression on the sargentii related crabs... they start  with beautiful bright red buds followed by a combination of red buds and white flowers, and ending in all white blooms. Here is that progression first in a fairly recent cultivar selected here in Wisconsin called Firebird, and secondly the variety Tina which I grow close to the ground, although it is often seen  as a standard...

Firebird in bud

Firebird in bloom

Firebird retains its fruit very well

Tina in bud

Tina buds transition to flowers

Tina in full bloom

My final choice for this short series on good deciduous trees is also of the apple genus. Louisa has true pink bloom not often seen in flowering crab apples. Additionally, it is a weeper that will eventually attain a height and width of 15' with my requisite small fruits held over a long season. Above all else, it has excellent disease resistance on all accounts. I placed it next to the old cistern in the gardens because it blooms pretty much in sync with the two Betty and two Pinky Little Girl hybrid magnolias seen below. Louisa also displays some tendency towards alternate year blooming... the first photo below is from the 2009 season with heavier bloom and the second is from the 2010 season with less bloom. Also note the amount of growth over the period of one year...

Before posting a couple more 'lovely faces I'm anxious to see', I'd like to offer just a bit of advice on flowering crab apples. When I first started planting them, I used cultivars that were mainstays of local nurseries. In fact, after almost forty years, these nurseries are still offering these same varieties for sale. These trees have for the most part been extremely susceptible to apple scab and defoliate by July in this climate where we often have cool and humid springs. Every year I go through a difficult period trying to decide whether to remove the mature trees or not. The problem is that they have for the most part, become very important to the visual aspect of my garden's design although three of them are getting perilously close to the chopping block! It is extremely important that one makes disease resistance on all counts the primary factor in choosing a flowering crab. It simply isn't enough to go to an arboretum and fall for the one with the most and loveliest bloom... better to go to that same arboretum towards the end of July and see which ones have retained their good clean foliage... and don't depend on spraying to take care of fungal leaf diseases... it just doesn't help all that much and is expensive and can be dangerous in my opinion.To my way of thinking, the second most important factor is to consider the fruit size... I have had crab apples over the years that bore so much heavy fruit that it consistently broke branches by fall... fine if you want to make jelly, otherwise, I recommend avoiding these as well... and do keep in mind that a long period of fruit retention is of great ornamental value as well as enjoyed by the birds towards the end of winter.
I have removed as many flowering crab apples over the years as I now have in the gardens... be wise and choose with great care and research so that you can enjoy them for decades to come!


With that I have to mention it is finally above freezing here at 42 degrees fahrenheit and it actually feels like spring... the snow is rapidly diminishing and that's ok with me! Happy Valentine's day to all! Larry


A couple faces from the last year's gardens...

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