FIREBIRD CRABAPPLE

  MALUS  'FIREBIRD'

Monday, 8:30 AM.  26 degrees F at the ferry dock and on the back porch.  Wind SW, mostly calm with occasional light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity 70%.  The barometer is rising, now at 30.66".  Temperature highs will continue in the low to mid 30's during the week, with mixed skies and no precipitation predicted until next weekend. Hurrah, we see the sun at last!
   Speaking again of deer, my son, who lives in Texas, hit a deer with his car Saturday night. aybe I'll get a venison dinner yet.
   Apples and crabapples are all species of the genus Malus, in the Rose Family.  There are upwards of fifty species, all native to the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere.  The edible orchard apple, of which there are many varieties, is M. pumila.
   Small fruited, basically inedible species and varieties of Malus are generally called crabapples, or crab apples, or flowering crabapples.  All are small to medium sized trees, the crabapples mainly grown for their colorful blooms and decorative fruits, as well as orchard pollinators.  Most if not all are excellent wild life plants.  The genus is extremely variable genetically, and species hybridize readily.
   This year was excellent for apple production, and thus for crabapple fruit as well.  One of the best crabapples for abundant and colorful fruit is 'Firebird,' a small, very upright and formal tree.  It is a great plant for small places and makes a good small street tree, if the fruit does not pose a problem.  It is best used in a formal setting, as there is little in the natural landscape like it .