Malus Raspberry Spear® - Crab Apple

The Malus Raspberry Spear is an ornamental crab apple with a naturally columnar habit, ideal for small spaces or planting in rows. It combines a rosy-red flowering in spring, purple foliage and beautiful decorative red fruits that persist into winter. Its verticality can be utilised in the centre of a border, to frame an entrance, or to line a path. Undemanding and resistant to major diseases, it is an easy-care and highly decorative tree for almost the entire year.

Belonging to the Rosaceae family, the Malus Raspberry Spear ‘JFS-KW213MX’ is a patented cultivar (PP 31008) introduced in 2018 by Keith Warren from the J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. nursery (Oregon, USA). It is part of the Spear® series, which brings together trees with a narrow, slender silhouette and high disease resistance.
It is a small tree that reaches 6 m in height and 2.5 m in width at maturity; its growth is around 15 to 30 cm per year. Its habit is naturally columnar and upright. Its flowering occurs in April-May: the tree is covered in single flowers with 5 petals, of an intense rosy-red, measuring 2.5 to 3 cm, slightly fragrant and very melliferous. The foliage, which is deciduous, is perfectly healthy. It is purple-coloured during the bud burst period, a little greener in summer, then bronze to orange in autumn. The ovate leaves, 5 to 8 cm long, are borne on erect twigs with grey-brown bark. In September-October, the tree fruits abundantly. It produces small, dark red apples about 12 mm in diameter, spherical, which persist on the branches into winter. These fruits, which are not edible, are very popular with birds and contribute to the garden's biodiversity.
'Raspberry Spear adapts to a wide range of well-drained soils, whether clay, loam or sandy, preferably slightly acidic to neutral (pH 5.5 to 7). Once well-rooted, it can withstand periods of moderate drought. Very hardy, it tolerates temperatures down to –34°C and shows excellent resistance to the main diseases of ornamental crab apples, such as scab, fire blight, rust and powdery mildew.

Slender, compact, colourful, the Malus ‘Raspberry Spear’ makes a statement in the landscape, even in small gardens. Planted as a specimen in a courtyard or along a path, it draws attention in spring with its flowering, then its foliage and fruits animate summer and autumn scenes. It pairs easily with perennials in cool tones like Nepeta 'Kit Cat', blue hardy geraniums or perovskias, which soften its verticality. It can also be paired with low-growing bushes with dark foliage like Physocarpus ‘Little Devil’ and Weigela florida ‘Foliis Purpureis’.