Blooms brighten spring landscape

We have been rewarded with a glorious spring after that very long, snowy winter. I cannot recall seeing a more beautiful palette of flowering trees and shrubs. Today’s featured plant is another one that would make an excellent addition to brighten anyone’s spring landscape.

Klehm’s Improved Bechtel crab apple is a deciduous tree that is grown for its showy flowers rather than its fruit. As a matter of fact, this crab apple doesn’t produce much fruit at all, making it a tidier variety to have in the landscape. For this reason, many cities select it as a street tree.

The tree has a beautiful branching structure and a rounded growth habit. It can grow anywhere from 10 to 20 feet tall and requires very little pruning, just for shaping or to remove any broken branches.

Klehm’s Improved Bechtel is hardy and easy to grow. It will thrive in most types of soil and can tolerate a lot of heat. The leaves are oval with a toothed edge and are medium-green in color during most of the growing season, then turn from orange to red in the fall.

But the flowers are definitely the reason for this cultivar’s popularity. They are a light peachy pink in color and from late May to early June, the tree is covered with marvelous clusters of these double flowers. The blossoms are lightly fragrant and attract all sorts of bees and butterflies. Because this variety blooms later than many of the crab apples, it extends our delightful season of blooming trees.

Even though there are more than 200 varieties of crab apples, Klehm’s Improved Bechtel has proven itself to be a stunning cultivar.