Crabapple in socal?

JoeK

Hello everyone, i'm a fairly new member here with a couple of quick questions.

I just purchased my first crabapple and i was wondering, do crabapples flower in southern california? I read somewhere that they would have trouble since the winters here are pretty warm. I should have researched this beforehand but i couldn't resist buying it.

Also, do they have a hard time with the summer sun in socal? Temperatures near my area hit 100 for at least a couple weeks in the summer.

Thanks!

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Vance Wood

If you bought the tree locally from a nursery it will probably bloom and withstand your summer heat and warm winters. Nurseries do not normally sell plant material that will not perform in the area where they are sold. If you bought it somewhere else then you may or may not have a problem.

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soonami

Vance, that's not necessarily true. A lot of times nurseries sell what will be bought. If you were to go out in SoCal, I'm sure you would see nurseries selling rhododendrons, hostas, and lots of more temperate climate plants that people see on Martha Stewart and would love to have.

Joe, if you can spare the root in an extra fridge, you could put the tree in the fridge to help get it deep into domancy and coax it to bloom.

Good luck with your tree

JavaScottC

Joe,
I'm about 7 hours north, but we have similar weather sometimes. Have my crabapple in afternoon shade when the summer heat gets going, and as for blooms, I had some this year. Sorry for the bad pic.

Scott

Attached Images

Maluszumi3-05.jpg (67.7 KB, 76 views)

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bonhe

Hi JoeK,

I'm living in So. CA and my crabapple doing very well. At this time, it has the 2nd show of flowering. It depends on microclimate. My area in summer, Temp. could go up to 105 and winter could go down to 45. I place my trees in the East side of the house for which they get full morning sun but shade in the afternoon, and in high peak of summer, I place some bonsai under the large landscape tree with automatic misty system 3 times a day. Bonhe

Koi_Gal

I'm in central CA, where it easily gets to 110 in the summer. I have my crab out in the open from September through late May and then put in under my big trees for the full brunt of summer. It does great and flowers