Malus hybrida Liset - Crab Apple

Malus Liset is undoubtedly one of the most decorative ornamental apple trees there is, but this variety requires high-quality soil and is susceptible to diseases that affect fruit-bearing apple trees. It is a small tree with a wide crown, or an imposing bush, whose spring flowers of an almost red-violet pink shade are as abundant as they are colourful. Its foliage, which retains its beautiful juvenile purple to chocolate colour for a long time, then turns bronze green. Its abundant and dark purple-coloured fruit is also decorative in autumn, and it provides food for birds. 'Liset' will be superb in a small garden, but also in a flowering hedge.

Ornamental apple trees come from various botanical species of the genus Malus belonging to the rose family. Hardy, accommodating, and easy to grow, flowering apple trees can thrive in ordinary soil but prefer rich, deep, loose, and moist soil. Once established, they can be forgotten about and still maintain their generous nature. Numerous cultivars have been developed in Europe and the United States, becoming increasingly attractive and disease-resistant. 'Liset', on the other hand, was obtained in the Netherlands in 1952.

The 'Liset' crab apple tree forms a small tree with a single trunk or multiple trunks depending on whether it is grafted or not. Its crown, initially quite dense when young, widens and rounds out with age, giving it an imposing bush-like silhouette. It develops a little more in height than in width. Its average dimensions at maturity (around 10 years) are approximately 5.50m (18ft) in height and 4.50m (15ft) in spread. It maintains a harmonious shape without the need for pruning and develops smooth brown bark that darkens and cracks over time.

Flowering occurs in late April or early May, in the form of numerous dark brown buds. They open up into single flowers, 3.5cm (1in) in diameter, with a pink-violet-purple colour. These flowers, grouped in small clusters, bloom at the same time as the very young leaves form. The flowers, visited by bees, are followed by the formation of a multitude of small crab apples that resemble cherries, measuring 1.2 to 1.6cm (1in) in diameter. When fully ripe in late summer, they turn dark purple-brown. Highly appreciated by birds, these fruits remain on the bush until the end of October. The deciduous foliage has an unusual colour: it consists of leaves that emerge purple, take on brownish hues, retain this purple coloration until July, turn bronze green in August, and then yellow in October before falling.

Malus Liset, like many flowering apple trees, is a good pollinator for fruit-bearing apple trees with early flowering. This small tree has more presence than a flowering cherry tree. Its abundant flowers may be less long-lasting than that of the cherry, but this detail is compensated by the beauty of its foliage from spring to autumn, the beauty of its fruit, and its elegant habit. It will find its place in a small to large-sized garden, in a mixed hedge, accompanied, for example, by large shrub or climbing roses trained as shrubs, hawthorns, lilacs, and serviceberries. When space is available, ornamental apple trees, planted in a large hedge along a slope, create a rather enchanting scene not only in spring but also in autumn, thanks to their often sumptuous colours at the end of the season.