Crab apples are wonderful trees for spring flower color in the garden, as well as for fall and winter beauty from their handsome fruit. They are especially useful in colder areas, like zone 4, where many other spring-flowering trees are unreliable or will not grow at all. Because they flower a little later than many other plants, the flower buds stay dormant during the early days of spring, so they are protected from the sudden temperature drops typical of the uncertain spring in cold zones. There are many varieties of crab apples, but only a handful stand out as special, and truly worth growing. Near the top of any such list will be the Profusion Crab Apple, a beautiful tree that is also very disease resistant and easy to grow.

Growing Profusion Flowering Crabapple Trees

The Profusion Crab Apple lives up to its name – every spring it is covered in a profusion of violet-red blossoms, making a spectacular display and really getting the growing seasons off to a powerful start. The outside of the flower petals is pure violet, and the inside reddish-pink, creating a very rich color palette you will love. By late summer the bright red fruits will be noticeable, hanging in clusters from the branches. These are small, just ½ inch across, and they too are in profusion. As the leaves fall they become more conspicuous, making a lovely show through fall and the early months of winter.

Pests and Diseases

The Profusion Crab Apple is remarkable for more than its flowers and fruit. There are several diseases that bother crab apple trees, causing yellowing and early leaf drop. Profusion is resistant to all these diseases, and that means a more attractive tree throughout the seasons, and a stronger tree that also resists pests more effectively. If you want healthy plants in your garden – and who doesn’t? – then this is a top-pick among the many crab apple varieties that are available.

Uses on Your Property

The Profusion Crab Apple forms a broad, spreading but upright tree, growing rapidly to 15 feet tall and ultimately reaching as much as 30 feet in ideal conditions. It has a similar spread, and old trees are often a little wider than they are tall. This is a good size for medium-sized gardens, as specimens on a lawn. In a larger garden they can be planted along a boundary, or as a backdrop to other shrubs in the garden. It needs no special training or pruning to develop a good structure, although you can trim it a little to keep it slightly smaller, or to raise the trunk higher. Always prune in winter or during dry periods in summer, and never in spring, as fresh cuts in that season can allow disease to enter.

Uses in the Kitchen

Besides the double benefit of colorful flowers and fruit, you can also harvest the crab apples. You will not like them raw – they are edible but very sour – but once you turn them into jelly will love it. With a wonderful aroma and a beautiful pink color, the jelly will be coveted at the breakfast table, and remind you of the bounty of flowers and fruit to come the following year. If you don’t harvest all the fruit the birds will take it as the weather turns harsher, so the benefit of your tree will not be lost.

Planting and Initial Care

As well as being winter-hardy, the Profusion Crab Apple is easy to grow. It thrives in most soils, although it will grow best and biggest in rich, well-drained slightly acid soil. In practice it is very adaptable, even to compacted soil and urban conditions, so it will grow well in almost any garden. Plant it in full sun for the most flowers, but it will also tolerate a little shade. A spring mulch with compost or rotted manures over the root area, but clear of the trunk, will retain moisture and feed your tree too – it needs nothing more. Water a newly planted tree regularly, but established trees are tolerant of average summer drought conditions.

History and Origins of the Profusion Crabapple Tree

Crab apples are clearly related to eating apples, but they do not come from the same source plants. There are numerous species of apple trees, and many of them have small, sour fruits. These grew across Europe and through central Asia into China. Many were cultivated, and when brought together they often naturally hybridized, or this was done by breeders.

It is hard to know the precise make-up of most of the varieties of crab apples. What we do know about the variety ‘Profusion’ is that it was created some time before 1938 by Simon Gottfried Albert Doorenbos, who was the director of the Hague Parks Department in the Netherlands, from 1927 to 1957. He produced this tree by crossing several species of crab apple trees, and he called his hybrids moerlandsii, although today botanists are not sure what to make of this name.

His tree was given the name ‘Profusion’ in 1948, and it was distributed around the world. Our trees derive directly from that original plant, and they are produced by grafting stem pieces of the tree onto apple roots developed for sturdy growth. These roots give vigor and strength to the trees. We have a limited quantity of this ever-popular disease resistant tree, but the demand is high, so order now while we still have our top-quality stock available for sale.