Prairie Fire® crab apple trees

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• Blossom colour: Pink - dark
• Fruit colour: Red

Malus Prairie Fire is a medium-size upright crab-apple tree, notable for its dark pink flowers.

Prairie Fire crab apple trees for sale

Malus 'Prairie Fire' is an outstanding small American crab-apple. The main attraction is the abundant stunning dark pink blossom - helped by flowers which are quite large by crab-apple standards.

Seen from a distance on a spring day, particularly in the early morning or late afternoon, the tree really does look like a fire.

In autumn the red cherry-like fruitlets are also quite large, and useful for wildlife. In areas with warm autumn days and cool nights the leaves take on golden hues.

How to grow

Malus 'PrairieFire' is easy to grow and not usually troubled by diseases. It has a distinctly spreading habit.

Advice on fruit tree pollination.

History

Malus 'Prairie Fire', more correctly known as Malus 'Prairiefire', was developed by Daniel Dayton at the University of Illinois in the 1980s. The university was part of the highly-regarded disease-resistant apple program of the "PRI" co-operative of Purdue, Rutgers, and Illinois universities . Many of the PRI varieties have the letters "pri" in their names, and Prairiefire maintains this tradition.

Like many of the newer crab-apple varieties it is far more disease-resistant than the old traditional ones.

Prairie Fire characteristics