Parks, Recreation & Leisure

Parks, Recreation & Leisure / Parks & Forestry

Tree Talk

Landscaping Tips | Plant of the Month | Tree Talk

Crabapple Trees
Gardeners, including tree gardeners, can be a crabby lot. We all have plants that we love to hate, and I put the crabapple tree on my list many years ago. It gave one week of spectacular flowers followed by an entire summer of defoliation by apple scab,fire blight and cedar-apple rust. The trees were also prone to cover sidewalks and drives with messy stinking fruits which were too small to do anything practical with but were large and numerous enough to attract yellowjackets. They were also overplanted in many areas, leading to major removal costs when entire neighborhoods of crabs reached their natural lifespans of forty years all at the same time.

I thus wrote the crabapple completely off of my list and I have spent many years searching for and planting alternative small flowering trees. If the truth is told, most of us Upper Arlington gardeners are not landscaping estate properties. We have little space for a copse of beeches, and we quickly run out of space for bur oaks and other large trees. Most of us are fortunate to have a number of large mature shade trees in our neighborhoods and in many cases we are looking simply to add a little bit of seasonal color and beaty to our yards. This has led me over the years to try a lot of different plants.

It is a simple fact of nature that plants (and trees) tend to grow precisely where they wish to grow, and they will not grow where they do not want to, despite our best efforts. There is always a balance between a plant's adaptability to a particular spot and its ability to slightly outcompete other plants that may covet that same spot. Much can therefore be learned by studying where plants tend to grow in nature and to duplicate that environment as closely as possible when putting that plant in an Upper Arlington yard. Most trees for example detest having grass over their root systems and natural leaf fall smothers the grass in the forest. It turns out that many of the small ornamental flowering trees are forest understory trees and they do not tolerate full all day sun well. The American dogwood for example tends to grow at the edge of forest clearings where it receives partial shade each day. The carolina silverbell, the stewartia, the Japanese maples and the redbuds are all happier if they are sheltered from harsh afternoon sun.

Some trees are even more particular. The Franklin tree is a beautiful small tree that starts producing large white flowers with yellow stamens in August of each year with the flowers often remaining on the tree while brilliant red fall leaf color develops. The tree was discovered by John Bartram along the banks of the Altamaha river in Georgia in 1770 and it has not been seen in the wild since 1790. Not to be deterred by its extinction in the wild and its absence (as far as I know) from Ohio State's Chadwick arboretum, I have attempted to grow this plant many times. I have killed it by overwatering, underwatering, improper site selection and probably a few other factors that I am not aware of. When our family moved to Arlington I decided to try once again, and I gave the Franklin tree a prime spot in my front yard. The wife of the previous owner and builder of our home had altered the blueprints of the kitchen to specifically place the kitchen table in the southwest corner of the house with a commanding view of the entire block down to the school. She did this to keep an eye on the kids but I took advantage of the site to keep an eye on my Franklinia. It was placed right outside of the kitchen window, a south facing exposure with a large oak to shade it from the west sun. It was two and a half feet from a water faucet, and it was the first thing I saw over the morning coffee every day (after my wife). It initially did well but it developed a case of the dwindles, getting smaller every year. Last summers drought was the final straw.

A bit more study finally led me to look again at the crabapple, the genus Malus. It turns out that crabapples are not forest understory trees in nature. They are early colonizers of grasslands, eventually to be replaced by trees in the climax forest. They are uniquely suited to full sun exposures in grass lawns and they are tougher than nails in the Ohio climate. Extensive breeding over the last forty years have led to many cultvar improvements since 1946 when Dr L. C. Chadwick recommended their use as street trees in old Arlington. Defoliation is much less problematic if one is careful to select resistant cultivars, and good local tree merchants can be very helpful in that regard. The range of size and form has also been greatly extended. Weeping forms such as Molten Lava and Luisa exist if one wants a bit of the Japanese garden look. Dwarf upright forms are also available such as the Rountable series developed by Lake County Nursery in Perry, Ohio. These can be popped into the edge of a perennial border and will not eat your yard. Tetraploid and octoploid crosses are also available. Coralburst was developed in Gardenview Horticulteral Park, Strongsville, Ohio by Henry Ross. It has vibrant coral pink blooms, very tiny leaves, and it is readily available locally. The late Father John Fiala, in addition to writing the definative book on Crabapples for Timber Press also was responsible for many new small fruited varieties developed at his Falconskeape Gardens in Medina, Ohio. It turns out that a longlasting display of brightly colored fruit may be a better reason to grow crabapples than the spring floral display. One can now see the bright red berries of Sugar Tyme lining Arlington Avenue well into November and December. These as well as some Adams crabs were planted this year with a portion of the Ohio Bicentennial Tree Grant monies.

With all of this Ohio connection and Johnny Appleseed to boot, this is simply the year to add a crab to your yard. The best way to go crab shopping that I can think of is to simply go looking right now. The nursery trees that still have leaves are resistant to disease defoliation and one has the best ability to select ornamental fruit in both the size and color that one would like. The flowers are always beautiful so it is less necessary to see the blooms when buying. Autumn is also a great time to plant a crabapple. Be assured that when you do, somewhere, Fr. Fiala will be smiling.

Parks & Forestry Division
Parks & Recreation Department
City of Upper Arlington
3600 Tremont Road
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
Phone: 614-583-5340