Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Maypole Crabapple Bareroot

History: Maypole was developed in 1976 by Plant Breeding International at the East Malling Research Station in the UK as a cross between Wijcik Spur McIntosh and Baskatong. Wijcik Spur McIntosh originated as a mutation discovered on a McIntosh tree in 1962 in the Wijcik Orchards in British Columbia, the branch growing oddly straight with little branching. Several varieties were deliberately bred to have this mutation and now Maypole, released in 1986, is one of six columnar varieties developed at the station. This series of trees is known as Ballerina in the UK but due to that name being unavailable in the US, they are known as Colonnade in North America. 

Why We Grow It: Not only is Maypole unique as a columnar apple, this crabapple also boasts lovely red flesh, bronze coloured leaves, and pretty pink blossoms in the spring. This makes it overall a lovely ornamental tree to have, whether planted in the yard or in a pot. The fruit is also excellent for jelly, apple butter, and cider, adding a red hue to each. It can also be eaten fresh although it tends to be quite acidic with a touch of sweetness.

    $56.50

    Rootstock:
    Size

    Out of stock

    Fruit Traits:

    Recommended Use: Jelly, cooking, cider

    Fruit Size: Small

    Storage: Keeps a few weeks at most when refrigerated

    Harvest: September - Mid

    Cider Class (if applicable):

    Sugar: High
    Acidity: High
    Recommendations: Adds sugar and acidity to blends along with a red hue

    Tree Traits:

    Canadian Hardiness Zone: 4

    Soil Preferance: Sandy loam, loam, clay loam. Prefers average to moist conditions, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring. Generally quite adaptable to different soil conditions.

    Flowering Time: Middle

    Bloom Colour: Pink

    Pollination Requirements: Partially self-pollinating, this variety will produce some fruit without an apple tree of a different variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present. Like other crabapples and applecrabs, this variety is an excellent pollinator thanks to its large number of blossoms.

    Sun/Shade Requirements: Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

    General Growth Habit: Moderately vigorous, columnal growth type, and does well in pots, spur-bearing. Susceptible to scab, cedar apple rust, fireblight, and powdery mildew - though has preformed well in our test orchard.

    Overall Disease Resistance Rating*: Medium

    *this rating is combined with our experience growing in our test orchards combined with already available information on the cultivar.

    Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

    Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc.

    Our grafted fruit trees are graded into two categories, and the size includes the rootstock:

    • 50-80cm grade: Smaller trees that may have some minor branching, this grade is like a "b-grade" size tree according to industry standards. This size may include trees that are over 1m but have some scarring or mild crookedness.
    • 1m+ grade: Trees that are over 1m tall, some may have no branches and others may have light feathering or a few established branches 

    Please keep in mind, bareroot trees appear small if you are unfamiliar with them. Size can vary year to year due to weather conditions and every single variety has a unique amount of vigour (some varieties naturally are smaller and some bigger, much like humans -and when you propagate hundreds of varieties, there certainly is variation). While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth. Therefore you may find some conventional nursery stock larger in comparison. 


    Why plant small? It's best to transplant a tree when it's young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and after a few years bareroot trees tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted trees planted at the same time.

    Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the trees are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

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