“What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet”
Hank Thoreau, Wild Apples
We live in an epoch of new and dynamic plants, each year bringing about a dizzying array of colorful promises from plant breeders – but for my inaugural Crabgab, allow me to indulge in horticultural nostalgia with a few words about a crabapple near and dear to my heart, if not nearest and dearest. Reader, I suspect you have already apprehended the culprit in your malus-obsessed mind. I am talking about the Dolgo Crabapple, of course. Our Centurian crab, the Dolgo has over a hundred years in the ornamental game. It has proved its mettle against apple scab, earning a Superior rating ("less than 5% of leaves affected and no aesthetic impact”) in evaluations conducted by the International Ornamental Crabapple Society. A cold hearty tree, it is valuable both on its own merit and as a rootstock. And while no slouch at bloom time with its lovely white flowers, we find the Dolgo most conspicuous in late summer, flaunting its prodigious yield. This cascade of fruit makes the tree a favorite of whitetail deer, and in turn, deer hunters. Perhaps the pessimists among us grumble at the messiness of the Dolgo’s fruit, yearning for the glory days of the Callery Pear. But we would be better served to see the Dolgo’s fruit as a boon; it is a first-rate choice for cider and a very fine choice for apple butter. Skeptical? Come see us at the ArborEatUm (October 16).
Our hero's origin story traces back to just before the turn of the 20th century, at the Imperial Botanical Gardens in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Seed from Malus x robusta was collected by Professor Niels Ebbesen Hansen of the South Dakota Experiment Station, and in 1897 our peerless cultivar was born. Twenty years later the Dolgo was introduced into the United States. Malus x robusta is a hybrid of Siberian Crabapple (Malus baccata) and the plumleaf Crabapple (Malus Prunifolia). The name Dolgo honors our hero’s Siberian roots. The word “Dolgo” comes to us from the Russian Долго, which translates to long (in reference to the fruit). Долго can also be translated as ‘a long while’, perhaps speaking to the Dolgo’s tremendous run as an ornamental.
References:
Fiala, J. L., & Daniels, G. S. (1994). Flowering crabapples: The genus malus. Timber Press. McClellan, M. (2022, October).
Welcome to Crablandia. Nurserymag.com. https://www.nurserymag.com/article/welcome-to-crablandia/
Thoreau, H. D., & Rossi, W. J. (2002). “Wild Apples” and other natural history essays. University of Georgia Press.
–Alexander Lavrisha, Plant Materials Specialist, Secrest Arboretum lavrisha.5@osu.edu