A few Crab Apples

[alpineart]

These are some of the crab apples that were either seed grown , layered or collected over a long period .

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I have 4 -5 different varieties from greens to deep reds. The reds in the planter bags were layers taken off in spring of this years .the small potted sticks are root cutting that sprouted and were dug last week

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These are usually given as gift to the children of the parent's that come up to buy tree's . Yes i do give them a bit of wiring . With 7 trees needing removal and 12 months to remove , I layered around 30 trunks off prior to digging the tree's out . .These original tree's now reside in planter bags ready to be layered again as landscape material or maybe bonsai starters

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.I made a make shift retaining fence too wire the tree's to as the long skinny trunks wont hold up with pots attached if a storm hits

Cheers Ian

[melbrackstone]

I have some with the reddish leaves, they just seem to want to grow long without branching. You sure do have a lot of them, and I like the idea of the fence to wire them to in case of strong wind. Might have to nick that idea, ta!

[alpineart]

Hi Mel' , than can grow leggy , just nip the tip off and thats slows them down . The restraint is required as the thin branches will snap if I don't secure them . Just a couple of star pickets with an old extension lead running in between at various heights .

I have a few , now i have a few more

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I set a dozen layers today and we will see what tomorrow brings .It is getting late but they grow like weeds so they should be good .Plenty of food and water will push them hard and tip pruning will begin the shaping .
I sold 120 mixed crab apples in 1 sale so these can replace what i dont have without any real outlay . I need more tree's like a hole in the head but I just hate waste .

Cheers Ian

[alpineart]

These appear to be growing however they are flowering again or be it 50% of the layered trunk have a second flowering coming on ..

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The original trunks haven't done this .All the flowers and fruit was removed from all the layers and main trunks .It appears to be only 1 variant that does this here ??

I have cut all the new flowers off again and will hopefully get some foliage growth .

Cheers Ian

[melbrackstone]

They either very happy, or very unhappy, lol. Nice to see some crab apples flowering, I didn't see any this past season.

[alpineart]

Hi Mel , they seem to be healthy so I'm assuming thats happy also . I have just watered and the parent trunk has 2 flowers on it , maybe its just this particular variety ..
I have had Jack Humm and John Downie flower twice in a season both these are old time green varieties with larger bi coloured apples .

Maybe I'm looking after them too well .

Cheers Ian