When choosing flowering trees, it is hard to beat the flowering crabs. These bring three seasons of beauty to the garden. Here are some recommended disease resistant crab apples for the landscape.


Copper King Crab

This rounded tree reaches ten feet in height with a matching spread. White in bud, it features scented, white flowers and copper colored fruits. Copper King has excellent disease resistance.


Coralburst Crab

This rounded tree is 15 feet in height. It has reddish-pink blossoms that open late in the season. The fruits are orange-red. This shows resistance to the major diseases.


Coral Cascade Crab

About 15 feet in height, Coral Cascade is an arching to semi-weeping tree. It features dark red buds and white blossoms flushed with red. The orange fruits are long lasting. This shows some disease resistance.


David Crab

This small tree is 12 to 15 feet in height with a matching spread. The white blooms open early in the season from pink buds. The flowers are much larger than most crab apples. The fruits are red. It shows excellent resistance to rust and mildew with good resistance to scab and fire blight.


Doubloons Crab

A relative newcomer, this has been around for about twenty years. This is a small tree that only reaches 12 to 18 feet in height with a spread of 15 feet or so. Densely branched, it has an upright, spreading growth habit. Opening from pink buds, the white blooms are semi-double to double. This is among the latest of the crab apples to bloom.

The fruits are yellow and hang on the tree for months. This was bred by Father John Fiala. It has excellent disease resistance to rust and mildew and good resistance to scab and fire blight.


Golden Raindrops Crab

Golden Raindrops reaches 20 feet in height. It has an upright, vase shape. The blooms are white. This tree is known for its cutleaf foliage. The fruits are yellow. This tree is resistant to apple scab.


Harvest Gold Crab

Hardy to zone four, this upright tree reaches 20 to 30 feet in height with a spread of 15 feet or so. It has white flowers and golden fruits from which the plant gets its name. The fruits hang on the tree late into the year. This shows excellent disease resistance to mildew, rust, and fire blight with good resistance to scab. It is also salt tolerant.