Flowering Crabapples - A Review
The Genus Malus: Modern Flowering Crabapples as Ornamental Trees; Form, Companion Plants, and Propagation; Culture, Diseases, and Pests; Introductions, Hybridizing, and Taxonomy.
Flowering Crabapples: "The Genus Malus" by Rev. John L. Fiala is an essential reference for those wanting to know about flowering crabapple trees in built landscapes.
Flowering Crabapples: The Genus Malus, written by the Rev. John L. Fiala (1924-1990) and published posthumously in 1994, is directed toward those with a love of ornamental crabapple trees and their use in botany, horticulture and landscapes. Here is a book brimming with information about ornamental crabapples. Flowering Crabapples is, primarily, a reference book rather than an oversized pleasurable coffee-table book despite its excellent photographs. Patience is essential for readers wanting to make their ways through its twelve intricate and comprehensive chapters. I believe, however, that most readers will find some chapters more appealing than others, and will use this book for reference rather than for straightforward reading.
The following chapters are ones that I consider the most helpful to those wanting to bring four-season plant interest into their landscapes:
- Flowering Crabapples as Ornamental Trees highlights spring bloom, autumn fruit, and disease-resistant summer leaves;
- Tree Form organizes the variety of crabapple tree sizes from large to small, shapes from trees to shrub and bush figures, and structural forms from columnar to weeping;
- Landscaping with Flowering Crabapples helps the reader to consider the numerous possibilities inherent in selecting these trees for design use. Possibilities suggested by Fr. Fiala are:
- Enjoyment of small crabapples as patio, container, and sidewalk plants;
- Use of big crabapples in large gardens and on estates where space is not a problem;
- Beautification of garden walks;
- Development of crabapples with outstanding structural form as focal points;
- Utilization of columnar ornamental trees for backgrounds and as screens;
- and one of my favorite sections in the book , Management of large, floriferous, and disease-resistant varieties in highway plantings.
Companion plants, Fr. Fiala maintained, encourage landscape gardeners to enhance the beauty of crabapples by creating unique combinations using:
- Conifers;
- Lilacs;
- Dogwoods;
- Magnolias;
- Hostas and Hemerocallis (daylilies);
- Perennials and annuals;
- Ornamental shrubs;
- and Spring- and autumn-blooming bulbs.
Flowering Crabapple Culture and Diseases, and Pests of Flowering Apples are two chapters important to anyone who wants to successfully plant and grow crabapples whether for research, breeding purposes or landscape projects. Of course, specific chemical products or trade names have changed since this book's publication. Therefore, check with reputable ornamental crabapple nurseries, extension agents, or horticultural societies for current and specific information.
Other chapters of The Genus Malus present specialized and scientific information about:
- Development of Modern Flowering Crabapples;
- Introduction and Hybridization of Flowering Crabapples;
- Propagation;
- Taxonomy of the Genus Malus;
- Botanical List of Crabapple Species; and
- Named Crabapples (up to the early 1990s).
The Reverend John L. Fiala died in 1990 after more than 50 years of work with crabapples but before he witnessed publication of Flowering Crabapples: The Genus Malus. He was a founder of the International Ornamental Crabapple Society, which receives royalties from this book. He was also one of the twentieth century's foremost lilac enthusiasts and breeders.
John L. Fiala grew up on his parent's farm in Medina, in the northeast corner of Ohio. In maturity, he acquired a 120-acre parcel there, which he named “Falconskeape,” based on the translation of the name Fiala that means "falconer" in old German. It was here that he took on his significant work with crabapples and lilacs, many of which are patented with the name "Fiala."
John L. Fiala was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1948 and spent his working years as a parish priest in the Cleveland area, a professor of psychology and education at John Carroll University and other Cleveland-area colleges, and as a church administrator. Throughout all these years, Fr. Fiala's prevailing love was plants.
Flowering Crabapples: The Genus Malus is currently out of print. It is not available from the publisher, Timber Press, but may be available from your local independent bookseller or one of the following online booksellers:
The Rev. Fr. John L. Fiala's life details are from his obituary in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) December 22, 1990.
Please read my blog Flowering Crabapples - The Genus Malus for a moving dedication by the Rev. Fr. John L. Fiala to his readers . For more information about crabapples and garden landscapes, please read my articles:
and these blogs:
©
Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage, October 2006. Reproduction without permission prohibited.
