ARCADIAN ARCHIVES

Malus 'Red Sentinel'

The crab apple cultivar that has provided our most reliable display of winter fruit for the past five years is Malus 'Red Sentinel'. Sometimes, fruits remain on the tree from August until February. It thrives in reliably moist, but not waterlogged, soil; crab apples are intolerant of soil that becomes dry and bereft of moisture during spring or summer. An open, sunny site is also essential for best results.

'Red Sentinel' is extremely popular and readily available from nurseries, garden centres and mail order catalogues. Apart from its spectacular display of fruits that mature from pink-yellow in late summer to a vivid shade of scarlet by early autumn, this cultivar is well known for its profusion of white, spring blossom. It is ideal for small gardens and is usually grafted onto a rootstock that ensures it grows into a fairly compact tree with a maximum height of around 6 m (20 ft). Although most crab apples are self-fertile, the best display of fruits comes from trees that are grown nearby other apple or crab apple trees. For this reason, they are often planted in commercial orchards to encourage better pollination and a heavier crop of fruit from cultivars of culinary apples.

The fruit from many crab apple trees is not edible but one exception is 'John Downie'. Ideal for more spacious gardens, this tree can reach a height of 10 m (30 ft). In spring it is clothed in an abundance of white blossom followed by a crop of glossy-skinned, orange apples in autumn. These fruits are ideal for making jams and jellies; rowan berry and apple jelly made from 'John Downie' is second to none!

Although both cultivars mentioned above have been grown as ornamental trees for over a century and are recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society with an Award of Garden Merit, there are many recently introduced cultivars that are equally meritorious. Most hybridising to find new cultivars takes place in Canada and the USA. Species from Siberia are used in the parentage to ensure good winter hardiness and, just to be sure, new cultivars are grown on in prairie areas where winters are extremely harsh. Ideal for northern areas of England, 'Almey' forms a small, 4 m (13 ft) tree with bronze-green foliage providing an attractive backdrop for pink flowers. Fruits in shades of orange and red are abundant in early autumn. 'Hopa' is another modern, low-growing, hardy cultivar. Dark green foliage and pink flowers form an attractive combination in spring. Orange-red, edible fruits linger on the tree well into November providing brightness at a time of year when winter's faded hues are all around.