Crabapple Trees in the Landscape
Mass' (Amherst, MA) Cold Spring Orchard shows off a new planting.
Recently, I visited a western MA orchard where eighteen kinds of crabapples form a fitting backdrop to a Memorial Garden. The day was perfect for an orchard visit.
Autumn crabapple display begins with warm sunny days and cool nights. Cold Spring Orchard in western MA is the demonstration, research and educational fruit-growing resource for UMass Amherst. The Garden honors the fruitgrowers who bought this orchard in 1962 and gave it to the University for fruit research.
What fascinated me the most about the crabapple trees were the fruit shapes and colors. The fruit of some cultivars (cultivated varieties or types) were already fully colored, while some were just beginning to develop color. The shapes ranged from fully spherical to ovoid.
More about the use of crabapples in the Memorial Garden design and crabapple characterics can be found in my article Crabapple Trees in the Landscape.
