To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Suggestions for crabapples for birds?
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 08:57:01 -0600
Thanks John for all the info. Presumably those you listed will be hardy in
Vermont as well as Maine? I used to go pick Dolgos off the ground under 2
trees at TN Tech, they are ripe in hot weather. Unfortunately those trees
have been bulldozed for a new bldg. The trees are disease resistant and the
fruit large enough to be useful for making apple butter, but for feeding
birds in winter, no. They did keep their leaves all summer, unlike the
"rosybloom" types that afflict so much of Tech's landscape.
There is a cemetary in town that has a pair of crabapples at each
entrance, these are beautiful trees. In autumn, they droop with lovely
yellowish fruit which eventually freezes and develops a translucent orange
appearance. They hang on all winter, sort of sparkling in the sun. We pass
them every week, always remarking on them. They are so lovely, I can't help
but feel it ought not to be possible in this place which is so inhospitable
to apples. I don't see birds in them, so I don't know if they are popular
or not. There is so much fruit on them, it could be going gradually and I
wouldn't know it. Donna