Fimbriata crab apple trees

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• Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
• Blossom colour: Pink - light

Malus Fimbriata is notable for its double-flowered blossom, very unusual in a crab-apple.

Fimbriata crab apple trees for sale

Malus Fimbriata is an unusual and distinctive crab-apple.

Most crab-apples have single flowers (with a relatively small number of petals) but the flowers of Malus Fimbriata have a profusion of petals, rivalling some of the showiest of the flowering cherries.

The flowers can be very large by crab-apple standards, and have a subtle fragrance, reminscent of roses.

The flower colour is also a bit different, being peach-pink rather than the more usual rose-pink of most crab-apples.

How to grow

Like other forms of the Prarie Crab species, Malus Fimbriata flowers relatively late in the crab apple blossom season. It does not always produce fruitlets and is possibly not self-fertile. Unusually for a crab-apple, it is not a good pollinator of mainstream apple trees either.

The blossom of Malus Fimbriata is quite prone to frost damage, which will create ugly brown patches on the flowers. If a cold snap is forecast try to cover the tree with horticultural fleece.

Advice on fruit tree pollination.

History

Malus Fimbriata belongs to the crab-apple species Malus ioensis, known as the Prairie Crab, a native of the central plains for North America.

It was discovered as a chance seedling growing in Rochester, New York, in the 1930s by Bernard Slavin and named by his son. It is sometimes known as the Fringe Petal Crabapple, on account of its spectacular blossom.

Fimbriata characteristics