Experience with Mollie Ann crabapple?

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temarch1 Columbia, MO Feb 22, 2022

I can’t find much information about this crabapple cultivar and disease resistance. I’m trying to choose between a mature-ish Mollie Ann I could get locally (my preference) and Louisa, which has been around a lot longer but I would have to buy online in a #5 pot. I gave up on Molten Lava, which I can’t find anywhere! I’m in mid-Missouri, Zone 6a. We’ve had trees with fire blight and cedar rust in the neighborhood.

Post #10531982
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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) Feb 24, 2022

HI temarch1:

Your post caught my eye, because ornamental crabapples have been one of my weaknesses over the decades of knowing and growing a lot of plants. Malus 'Mollie Ann' was a selection produced by the prodigious skills of Father John J. Fiala. I will reproduce his words here.

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Quoting:
Malus ‘Mollie Ann’
Parentage: (M. ‘Dorothea’ x M. sieboldii) x (M. ‘Shinto Shrine’ x M. ‘Lullaby’) (Fiala 1978)
An induced octoploid. Named to honor a sister of the introducer, Mollie Ann Fiala Pesata, Medina, OH. Introduced by Klehm Nursery, South Barrington, IL. A unique semi-weeper to 12 ft high and 10 ft wide, with thin branchlets in weeping, raceme-like clusters, unlike any other crabapple, assuming a semi-weeping stage as the great number of racemes increases; leaves rich green, very heavily textured, leathery, very attractive even when tree is not in bloom; buds deep red, opening to finely petaled, single, white flowers in clusters; fruit deep red, about 0.4 in in diameter, not as abundant as flowers. According to Lester Nichols, this crabapple is completely disease resistant, “a unique tree as a polyploid and weeper.” It certainly should be used by hybridizers, especially for its octoploid form and its unique racemelike branching. It should produce some outstanding and unique hybrids. Although interesting in its raceme form, it is primarily a hybridizer’s clone.

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Disease resistance should NOT be an issue for you.

For anyone interested in more about crabapples, I could not recommend more highly Fr. Fiala's tome Flowering Crabapples: The Genus Malus.

Thumbnail by ViburnumValley
Post #10532084
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temarch1 Columbia, MO Feb 25, 2022

Thanks! There’s a nice photo of one at https://dawesarb.arboretumexplorer.org/taxon-24528.aspx (3rd photo)

But they claim yellow fruit so I’m not even sure it’s the right cultivar! Can’t find many photos of the whole tree, but other pictures look bushier. Perhaps this one has been pruned a lot to get the graceful Japanese garden look, which I love. A Horticulture friend was telling me that apples are part of the rose family so training and pruning creatively are probably ok. That made me feel perhaps foolishly brave. Thanks for your help VV!

Post #10532108
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temarch1 Columbia, MO Feb 25, 2022

Thanks! There’s a nice photo of one at https://dawesarb.arboretumexplorer.org/taxon-24528.aspx (3rd photo)

But they claim yellow fruit so I’m not even sure it’s the right cultivar! Can’t find many photos of the whole tree, but other pictures look bushier. Perhaps this one has been pruned a lot to get the graceful Japanese garden look, which I love. A Horticulture friend was telling me that apples are part of the rose family so training and pruning creatively are probably ok. That made me feel perhaps foolishly brave. Thanks for your help VV!

Post #10532109
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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) Feb 25, 2022

I can believe that even a very good arboretum like Dawes can make a clerical error. If you want to know for sure, contact them! During cold dreary winters, Ohio horticulturists crave contact with crabapple connoisseurs...

You can compare notes with arboreta and gardens closer by, too. I suspect that somewhere in mundane Missouri you can get someone (maybe at U MO) to "Show Me!"

Post #10532119
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