Malus Rudolph - Crab Apple

The Malus Rudolph is an old variety of ornamental apple tree that is particularly ornamental and also known for its excellent resistance to the coldest winters. This small tree offers a wonderful spring flowering, huge, and of a rare pink-violet colour, reminiscent of Japanese cherry blossoms. Its foliage changes from crimson red to spring purple, then to dark green with red highlights in summer, and its autumn fruiting is as abundant as it is brightly coloured. Beautiful, it is also a variety that is easy to grow in the sun, in any good garden soil.

Ornamental apple trees come from various botanical species of the Malus genus belonging to the Rosaceae family. Hardy, accommodating, and easy to grow, Flowering Apples thrive in ordinary soil but prefer loamy, deep, loose, and fresh soils and sunny exposures. Once established, they can withstand neglect while retaining their generous nature. Numerous cultivars have been developed in Europe and the United States, becoming increasingly attractive and disease-resistant. 'Rudolph', on the other hand, was selected in the Canadian province of Manitoba in 1954. This cultivar is moderately resistant to scab, but perfectly hardy.

This Rudolph ornamental apple tree is a small tree with an upright and slender habit in its youth, but its crown widens with age. Over time, the crown expands and rounds out, and its branches slightly bend. It can form multiple small trunks, depending on whether it is grafted or not, which gives it a charming appeal. Its average dimensions at maturity are around 5.50 m (18 ft) in height and 3.50 m (11 in 6 ft) in spread. It maintains a harmonious shape without the need for pruning and develops a fine wood covered with a smooth dark brown-red bark.

Flowering occurs in March-April depending on the region, on bare or barely covered branches with very young leaves. It takes the form of numerous buds of a brownish mauve colour. They quickly open into single flowers, 5 cm (2 in) in diameter, with a deep pink-purple colour mixed with lighter pink. These flowers, gathered in small clusters of 4 to 8 units, are followed by young leaves that are crimson red, then deepen into reddish-purple, become coppery, and eventually lighten and take on a dark green colour in summer, but still retain some reddish highlights. The flowering, visited by bees, is followed by the formation of a multitude of small apples that resemble small oval plums measuring 1 to 2 cm (0.4 - 0.8 in) in diameter. When ripe in late summer, they are yellow-orange and fall quite quickly if not eaten by birds. The deciduous foliage turns yellow in autumn before falling. It consists of oval, alternate, and serrated leaves.

The Malus 'Rudolph', like many flowering apple trees, is a good pollinator for early-flowering fruit trees. Its flowering, abundant but possibly less long-lasting than that of a cherry tree, is extended by the beauty of its foliage from spring to autumn, as well as its fruits. The habit and bark add to the charm of this plant with an astonishing personality. It will find its place in a medium to large-sized garden, in a free hedge, accompanied, for example, by large shrubs or climbing roses trained as bushes, evergreen viburnum, lilacs, or even serviceberries. When space allows, ornamental apple trees planted in a large hedge on a slope bordering a sunken path create a rather enchanting scene in spring, as well as in autumn with their often sumptuous colours at the end of the season.