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My Crab Apple

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by wellywoman in Trees

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

crab apple tree, crab apples

My crab apple

It has been quite a while since I posted about my dear crab apple tree. Summer is always a quiet time for it, anyway. Once the blossom fades in May it blends into the background providing some shade for the end of the garden and a dark green backdrop for other plants to shine.

It looked as good as ever this spring, covered in blossom and, with the introduction of an espalier eating apple into the garden, I was hopeful it would be a pollinator for it. But, whilst my new apple was happpily pollianted and produced our first tasty home-grown fruit, my crab apple has not faired so well. In June, July and August we had so much rain, day after day, that I rarely venutred out into the garden. If I did, it was for a hurried trip to the compost bin and to the shed to drop off some recycling. Then, one day it stopped raining and I finally got a chance to potter and whilst doing a spot of weeding I had a look at the crab. Oh, it didn’t look well. My first thought was not another tree to have to get cut down. We’re not doing well with trees so far, an ornamental cherry lost to canker, an acer lost to something undiagnosed, a silver birch that was just too big. I was beginning to wonder if I had some unwanted propensity for killing trees.

My crab apple

The leaves looked sickly, and I could barely see any fruit. I did wonder if it was the weather. The tree looks a little better now for some sun, but I can only describe it as looking a bit mangy; it’s had a hard year.

It should be dripping in fruit and they should be ripening nicely now but the weather has put paid to that. When it came into blossom at the end of April we suffered a cold snap. Late frosts and heavy rain meant there were no insects about to pollinate. This will certainly explain the lack of fruits and is a worrying example of what will happen in the future if we don’t protect our pollinating insects, such as honey bees. Those fruits that have appeared are much smaller than normal and scabby and I can only imagine this has been caused by the miserable summer.

My crab apple

For me, it means fewer lovely red apples to gaze at whilst I do the washing up this autumn and winter, but more importantly, the blackbirds and starlings that strip the tree of fruit from December into March, will be short of food this winter. I fear it will be a hard year for the birds and small mammals dependent on trees and hedgerows for their food. Hips, haws and berries are all scarce, certainly here, this autumn.

So, whilst the tree doesn’t look at its best and I’ll have to buy more bird food to make sure they don’t go hungry this winter, it is a relief that it just seems to be the weather that has caused my crab apple to look so bad this year, I don’t think I could face another visit from a tree surgeon.

The Year of the Tree – My Crab Apple in December

13 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by wellywoman in Trees

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

blossom, crab apple tree, crab apples, winter

Winter Crab Apple

To celebrate the Year of the Tree I have been posting about my crab apple, following it changing through the seasons, November Post and October Post. Well, as it’s December I thought I’d post about my crab apple in winter.

The stormy weather of the last couple of weeks has removed the leaves but the tree is anything but bare. It is still covered in glorious red crab apples, which provide some welcome colour on dull, dreary December days. Some branches are so laden they are bent over under the weight of the fruit.

Some apples have fallen to the ground, making a carpet under the tree, others lie squished on the path. I noticed the other day whilst filling the bird feeder a strong smell of fermenting apples in the air.

Blackbirds and starlings are flocking to the tree now the weather is getting colder, perching in the branches and pecking at the crab apples. It’s good to know that whilst I can appreciate the beauty of the tree it is also providing a vital source of food for these birds.

Blackbird in my Crab Apple Tree last winter

Underneath the tree I have a Brunnera that is in flower, a sign of the strangely mild autumn. We’ve had two light frosts but these haven’t been enough to kill off the beautiful forget-me-not like flowers.

Bird splattered Brunnera flowering in December

If I look closely enough on the branches I can see next years flower buds and leaf buds protected from the harsh winter weather we may get by the bud scales. It’s a nice thought to know that these little buds will open into beautiful blossom and green leaves next spring and the cycle will start once more.

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