Malus Admiration is a naturally dwarf crab-apple tree, which grows very slowly with a compact upright habit. It is initially highly columnar, becoming more vase-shaped as it gets older.
Malus Admiration has an exceptional blossom display, which rivals many a flowering cherry in the intensity of its blossom - particularly given its small size. Not surprisingly it is also a useful pollinator of late-flowering apple trees.
The small crimson berry-like fruitlets are borne in abundance, and persist on the tree into early December. Their size makes them popular with birds such as thrushes and blackbirds which can eat them whole.
Overall this is one of the best crab-apples if space is limited.
Malus Admiration has good disease resistance, and is particularly resistant to fireblight.
After 10 years this tree is likely to be around 2.5m or so tall, and perhaps 3m after 20 years. The mature spread at the top of the tree could be up to 1.5m - it has a very upright and columnar form. For the first few years the tree is unlikely to have any side shoots, these start to develop as it gets older.
Malus 'Admiration' was developed by Dr Donald Egolf of the US National Arboretum in the 1980s. In the USA it is known as Malus 'Adirondack'.
Illustrative example of a pot-grown tree of this variety as supplied.
Approximate girth: 6/8cm. We try to keep all pot-grown trees down to about 1.5m as supplied, but some may be larger.
Trees should reach their mature height after about 10 or more years.
We may also have 1-year bare-root trees of this variety - they are not shown here.
We list more than 40 different crab-apple trees. Choosing can be difficult! See our article explaining the different characteristics of crab-apple trees which will help you narrow down the selection.