The Best Crabapple for Pollination

Considerations

• Several factors must be taken into consideration when selecting a crabapple cultivar to use as a pollinator. Honeybees tend to prefer to pollinate flowers of similar colors, so select a crabapple that produces blossoms the same color as the apple's. Most crabapples have fairly long flowering periods, but the bloom period must definitely overlap with the apple bloom period to ensure pollination. In larger or orchard plantings that require several pollinator trees spaced throughout, it may be best to plant multiple crabapple cultivars.

Whitish-Pink Flowers

• Manchurian, Golden Hornet, Snowdrift and John Downie produce white flowers with a hint of pink. The Manchurian crabapple has large white flowers with pale pink buds and is a suitable pollinator for Granny Smith, Braeburn and the king flowers of Delicious and others. Golden Hornet has medium-sized white flowers with deep pink buds and is a good pollinator for Delicious, Fuji, Gala and Jonagold apples, John Downy has a bloom period similar to Golden Hornet. Snow drift is a suitable pollinator for mid- to late-blooming apple cultivars like Red Delicious.

Pink Flowers

• Pink-flowered crabapple cultivars may be able to pollinate whitish apple flowers, as some bees will cross between white and intermediate pink colors. Rosedale, Malus x magdeburgensis and Hillierii produce pink blossoms. Hillierii and Malus x magdeburgensis are good pollinators for Delicious apples.

Reddish Flowers

• Red or wine-blossomed crabapple cultivars include Malus x aldenhamensis, a late-flowering tree that is well-suited to be a pollinator for Fuji, Gala and Jonagold apples. Another wine-red cultivar includes Profusion, which has a long bloom period that lasts from very early in the season until mid-late in the blossom season, making it ideal for pollinating Braeburn, Granny Smith or Jonathon.