Some crabapple trees are just made to decorate and impress…and among them, the Centurion Crabapple tree is one of the best! This fantastic accent and landscaping tree bring beauty from early in the spring season well into the fall.
Read on to learn all about this ornamental crabapple variety, including its primary characteristics, how to grow it, and more.
Looking to buy a Centurion Crabapple tree? Check availability.
Characteristics of Centurion Crabapple Trees
In many ways, the Centurion Crabapple tree might be what you would consider a classic example of ornamental crabapple tree varieties.
Due to its extreme cold hardiness, this deciduous crabapple tree is an early bloomer. So, if you plant a Centurion Crabapple Tree in your landscaping, you can expect to see its buds quite early in the blooming season!
The Centurion Crabapple tree kicks off the spring growth pattern with mid-sized buds that quickly flower into vivid, rosy blossoms. These will decorate your landscaping for a bit before maturing into the bright, beautiful cherry-colored crabapples that will stick around through the fall.
In terms of foliage, the Centurion Crabapple tree remains a standout. Its early-season foliage is a deep emerald green, which matures to a softer bronze and green hue as the year wears on. The mature spread of this crabapple tree reaches about 15 to 20 feet, with a height of 25 feet.
You may often find this ornamental crabapple variety growing in and among the fruit trees in apple orchards. This is because they make for such fantastic pollinators, with their large, vivid blooms enticing many visitors from nature.
Are Centurion Crabapples Edible?
The bright, inviting red fruits of this showy crabapple tree are edible. However, they lack the milder, more appealing flavor profile of varieties such as the Dolgo Crabapple or the Centennial Crabapple, which might make them preferable for consumption.
The edible uses for Centurion Crabapples often lend themselves more toward an additional element in ciders or occasionally in crabapple jellies. But as a whole, they do not have many edible properties.
Instead, the Centurion Crabapple tree is recommended for landscaping and as a flowering tree. It’s fantastic for attracting butterflies and many species of birds.
Best of all, when you leave the fruit on the tree, the Centurion Crabapple can help provide a food source for birds late into the fall. However, the fruit does not typically persist into wintertime.
It’s important to remember that, despite being a fantastic source of food for wild birds, the Centurion Crabapple tree’s fruit is toxic to house pets, horses, and some other animals. That’s because trace amounts of cyanide are present in crabapples, similar to elderberries and some other dark berries.
While birds can digest and process this compound, pets cannot. So be sure to keep a mindful eye on your landscaping crabapples.
Make sure your outdoor pets and any free-range local animals do not have access to dropped crabapples. This may require some maintenance and harvesting on your part to keep things clean and animals safe.
Growing Centurion Crabapple Trees At Home
Preparing and Planting
Don’t be intimidated by learning how to plant a crabapple tree!
While it might feel like a much bigger undertaking than common plant gardening, you will find your Centurion Crabapple Tree is a relatively easy crabapple variety to grow and maintain. This is a hardy, adaptable type of crabapple tree with inherent disease resistance and some drought tolerance.
To start planting your Centurion Crabapple tree, you will first want to select the perfect spot in your landscaping.
It’s best to plant where the soil contains a medium amount of moisture with good drainage. Acidic loam is preferred, but bear in mind that this crabapple tree variety can adapt to a wide range of soils.
Full sunlight is also a must in order for your Centurion Crabapple tree to thrive. Bear in mind how the location relates to walkways and footpaths in your yard. Crabapples over-ripen and drop from the tree can be very messy to clean up.
You can save yourself the extra work by ensuring the full spread won’t overshadow your sidewalks or driveway too much.
Once you have chosen the perfect planting spot for your Centurion Crabapple tree, you will want to make sure it’s free of weeds, rocks, or anything that could hamper the establishment of the tree’s roots. Turn the soil to ensure water will disperse well. Then it’s time to start planting!
To get your Centurion Crabapple Tree happily in the ground, you will need to dig a hole that goes as deep as the tree’s root ball, with twice the root ball’s span. Then, carefully loosen the root ball from the tree’s planting bucket and place it into your dug hole.
For reference, the soil line on the root ball should come up just about even with the sides of the hole.
Once you’ve placed the young tree in the hole, refill it with soil and water the soil deeply, but not to drowning. This good, deep watering will help ensure no air pockets form around the root ball, and will bind the turned soil with the root ball’s soil.
Caring and Maintaining
Moving into the care and maintenance era of your Centurion Crabapple tree will mostly be a breeze. It has low maintenance and medium water needs. Once established, in fact, you really only need to water this tree during any dry spells. Otherwise, regular rainfall will take care of the rest.
Pruning is always a good practice for crabapple trees, as it keeps them happy and healthy and directs their growth appropriately.
Be sure to prune your Centurion Crabapple tree only in the late winter. Springtime pruning is ill-advised, as it can create fresh wounds in the tree where diseases like the bacterium for fire blight can find a way in.
However, it is also good to know that with proper care and pruning practices, your Centurion Crabapple tree will have some levels of resistance to pests as well as common crabapple tree diseases.
As part of your regular tree care routine, be sure to clean up the dropped fruit from your crabapple trees. This will help you to avoid slick, hazardous, and otherwise blemished appearances on walkways and pathways.
It will also help reduce the risk of consumption by animals who would be at risk of cyanide poisoning from eating too many crabapples.
Where To Buy Centurion Crabapple Trees
Despite their robust beauty, Centurion Crabapple trees can sometimes be difficult to source. You can keep an eye out for them on sale at your local nursery, arbor, or lawn and garden center. When sourcing online, be sure to check resources such as Nature Hills.
You can also search for crabapple trees on Amazon and Etsy from private sellers.
Wrapping up Centurion Crabapple Trees
Are you excited to expand the beauty of your landscaping with the showy, hardy, absolutely stunning Centurion Crabapple Tree? Before you get started, be sure to check out our Crabapple Trees Page!
This is a fantastic resource for everything you need to know about raising healthy crabapple trees…from care to diseases to watch out for, the best varieties out there, and so much more.
- About the Author
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Renee Dugan is a lifelong writer, professional editor, and lover of all things nature, gardening and the big outdoors.
A Midwest girl who’s been in the garden since she could first hold a hand trowel, Renee’s love of growing things has bloomed into a passion for healthy living, holistic lifestyle, and knowing where our food comes from.
Now a mother and maturing gardener herself, Renee is passionate about channeling everything she knows and continues to learn about gardening into lessons for her son and others. Her excitement for sharing this knowledge is only superseded by her excitement about being able to finally grow her own citrus plants in pots.
Renee can be reached at renee.s.dugan@gmail.com