Betchel Crab Apple
It is a heartbreaker, that’s what it is.
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It comes from North America, in north-central United States around Iowa, and goes by the name Betchel Crab Apple.
We have this double-flowered variety here in the Sensory at Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden, Elizabeth Park.
It is botanically Malus ioensis ‘Plena.’
(Betchel was a Michigan nurseryman, also ensnared by this alluring plant.
Ioensis is the Latin form of Iowa, while ‘Plena’ is Latin for double flowers).
We planted seven some six years ago but one went west somewhere just like those drovers in the Western movies and series of yesteryear.
One glance at one of these 3-5 metre high small trees and you know you’ll come back for more.
They bear a heavy crop of soft pink to white rotate flowers, with tantalizing blushing pink buds.
There is but a whisper hint of sweet perfume.
They flower in October to November after the Japanese Crabs.
Take my caution, these guileless plants are home-breakers.
Every year in the old west the cowboys would saddle-up and ride back into the sunset for six months.
It wasn’t just the money that drew them away.
It wasn’t the prairie dogs scurrying under the sage brush, or the adventure of whooping it up with a bunch of Indians playing with bows and arrows.
Nor was it the pay-dirt-burning saloon booze-up at the end of the trail.
No!
You know what it was.
Every year winsome Sue Ellen and Mary Joe were left languished, weeping and pining for love back at the cabin door.
It was all hush, hush of course.
Too embarrassing for crusty old cowboys to own up to.
But if you listen real carefully, your imagination can still pick up the deep-drone murmur of mournful long-horns as they stomp around half crazy with the wafting sweet scent of Betchel Prairie Crab.