Jelly King®

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Jelly King is aimed particularly at cooks who want to make crab apple jelly - the orange/pink fruits produce an attractive orange jelly.

However Jelly King is more than just a crabapple jelly specialist, it is actually a great all-round crab apple. The white flowers are borne in profusion and provide an intense and long-lasting display in spring. The large autumn fruits are very pretty, and persist well into December.

Once the tree is a few years old it becomes a heavy-cropper, so even if you pick some for the kitchen there will still be plenty to provide autumn colour on the tree.

Jelly King crab-apple trees for sale

• 11-year bare-root tree £36.75
  Large size (3m-5m after 10 years)
  

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• 22-year pot-grown tree £61.00
  In a 12L pot
  Large size (3m-5m after 10 years)
  

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• 31-year bare-root tree £44.00
  Very large size (4m-7m after 10 years)
  

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You can now pre-order for next season.

How to grow

Jelly King is a relatively vigorous grower but with compact upright proportions. It may over-set fruit when young, and if this happens it is best to thin the fruitlets in late May to avoid excessive weight of fruit on the branches when they are still too young.

You may notice the flesh of the crab-apples has a dull stained appearance. This is a characteristic of Jelly King and does not affect the quality of the fruit - and if you are making crab-apple jelly it will still be nice and clear.

Jelly King is also a good pollinator of mainstream apple varieties in flowering groups 2 and 3.

History

Jelly King was developed in New Zealand in the 1970s, and is sometimes known as Mattfru.

Jelly King characteristics

• Gardening skillBeginner
• AwardsRHS AGM (current) - 2012
• Attractive featuresAttractive flowersAttractive fruit
• Growth habitUpright
• Flower colourWhite
• Leaf colourGreen
• Fruit colourOrange / Red
• Fruit sizeLarge
• Fruit persistencePersistent
• Food usesJam / Jelly
• Country of originNew Zealand
• Annual cycleDeciduous

What will it look like?

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.

How to choose a crab-apple tree

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.