Adirondack Flowering Crab

Adirondack Flowering Crab
Malus ‘Adirondack’
In these days of small planting strips, low overhead wires, sign visibility, and narrow spaces, there are few trees that meet the true small tree category.  The Adirondack Flowering Crab is one that does.  For nurseries, this tree is frustratingly slow to grow.  It takes at least twice as long in production to get to 2″ caliper compared to most other crabs.  But for those locations where you want a tree to maintain a limited height and width, this tree is the ticket.

The form is narrow and short, maybe getting to 12′ tall by 6′ wide, taking many years to get to that size.  The leaves are small, dark green, and sharply toothed. They grow and are held close to the branch they are attached to.  The flowers begin as fat red buds, then open to a waxy wide white flower of 1.75″ to 2.25″ wide, completely covering the tree.  This year they began flowering in early May.  The fruit is red to orange, approximately .5″ diameter and holds on until December.  This is not a dense or twiggy tree unless continually pruned, and would probably even train well on a flat wall or fence if desirable.

It appears that this tree is easy to transplant.  Additionally, all of the literature describes this crab as highly disease resistant, and we have never seen any insect problems with the tree.  I would not recommend this tree as a street tree, as it would never develop much of a crown. However, it would be an excellent choice for any  location requiring a short, but narrow, slow growing tree with minimal maintenance.

Their availability may be limited, and they may cost a bit more than other varieties because of this slow production time.  Let me know if you have any experience with the Adirondack Flowering Crab.