Overgrown Crabapple
Heatherwood, Late Fall
This poor crabapple has beautiful spring blossoms and fall fruit. But it also is misshapen with branches going everywhere. It has been left to find its own way through its early life and has gone completely wild. During the last few years, I have been carefully taking a few branches off each year. Over time, I hope it will behave and mature to a nice specimen.
Crabapple Grove
Yakima Arboretum
The Yakima Area Arboretum has one of the largest and oldest crabapple collection in the country. In the Spring, the blossoms create a mass of whites, pinks, purples, and reds. The trees are all mature and the blossom display is gorgeous.
The Yakima Arboretum collection is the stimulus that has led me to try to develop a little crabapple grove as part of our home landscape. This Spring, we planted a small grouping of six crabapples, all different varieties. Being young, their spring bloom was just a harbinger of what will be in the next 10 years or so. Over the coming years I look forward to watching them grow and mature. I plan to gradually develop an understory that will pull the grove together and complement the individual trees.