info on 'Malus Royalty' or other red leaf crab apple

I am planning on planting a crab apple 'Royalty', and I read somewhere on the web it doesn't flower much, and the fruit is even sparser.
Does anybody has experience with this tree?
I would love to hear from you.
Maybe you would recommend a different crab apple with purple/red leaves that won't go green halfway the summer.

Thanks, Christie

I had Royalty crabapple tree at my city house for about 15 years. It bloomed fine in the spring. It did not produce a lot of fruit. It did get that apple scab so I had to spray it with fungicide a few times every year. That was the only problem I had with it. It may not have got that except there was a lot of crabapple trees planted around the block in a city planting and I think my tree may have caught it from them since it's airborne spread I think. It was a nice tree and provided some much needed shade in the back yard but like all ornamental fruit trees they are prone to disease and insects and are relatively short lived.

It didn't stop me from planting another crabapple tree at our new home. I like them because they don't get huge and I wanted something I could put up close to the house.

I see you are in zone 9. I would check to see which varieties do well in your climate. I'm in zone 5.

Loon, you don't think it would do good over here? My "kinda local" grower has them for sale.

Crabapples in general do fine here, I don't know if this one needs anything special, but if it just has the requirements of any other crabapple then it should do fine.

If your local grower is selling them it is probably just fine. Mine was a very pretty tree. It did succor a lot at the roots so that kept me busy keeping them cut down. Other than the apple scab and having to keep it sprayed with fungicide it was fine. If you don't spray it gets these spots all over the leaves and they turn yellow and drop on the ground early. I have had a crabapple at my new house now for two years and have had no such problems but it is a different variety. I also keep it on a regular spray program since we have so many other kinds of fruit trees. I just have hubby hit it when he's spraying the apple trees. This variety doesn't have the puple leaves though but it's fruit is larger and hangs on through winter it seems. I get a lot more wind and air circulation at this house too so that may help with the fungal problems.

Here is a great link for you to look over.

http://www.townofgreenville.com/urbanforestry/info/CrabappleTreeVarieties.pdf


It lists a lot of different varities of crabapples along with information on them like if they're disease resistant or not. It also lists the growth habit, size at maturity and size of the fruit and what color the flower is or leaf is etc.

I know when I moved here I looked over these type of links carefully before I chose the variety I wanted to plant. I chose Red Jewel because of it's upright growth habit and size at maturity. I was planting it close to the house. As you will see some varieties are disease resistant and others are only slightly resistant.

Hope this helps. I know I've made some expensive mistakes in buying trees and that is just too expensive. If you buy a flower that doesn't fit or croaks it's no big deal but when you plant a tree you have to make sure it's a good "fit" for your individual growing conditions. Downstate I had the most beautiful pink dogwood. I wanted to buy one for this house but my local nurseyman told me they just don't do well here. They quit selling them because 50% or more of the ones they'd sell would die and they guarantee their trees so they were losing money on them. I took his advice and just planted other types of trees. I sure would love to have one again though. Oh well. :) Even though both homes are zone 5 the soil or growing conditions are different and so what works in one place won't necessarily work at the other place.

I also planted a Redbud here and while the poor thing grew beautifully and loves the soil the wind is too much for it. I didn't know it was a soft wooded tree. Didn't do my homework. So far I've lost 2/3's of the tree over the course of 3 years. I don't hold out a lot of hope for the remainder of the tree. I think it might have done fine if I had put it by a structure that would block the wind from it in a more protected area. I goofed. Makes me mad. :)

I'm lots more careful now what I buy and what I put where.