I'd like to share with you some pictures of a special crabapple variety (an ornamental tree).

It's a double flowering crabapple variety with flowers that almost look like little roses. Double flowering means it has more petals than a regular crabapple variety.

This particular special variety was discovered growing in Bellevue (which is less than 20 minutes right across Lake Washington from Seattle), in Washington state. It was probably a seedling of 'Brandywine' crabapple, but its flower color is a little less strongly magenta and fades to a lovely pink, which almost even has a very slight lavender tone. (For some reason, the picture taken by the digital camera makes the flower color appear just a little more magenta hued than the flower color actually appears)

For a brief amount of time after the blossoms first appear, the flower shape takes on a beautiful tight circular closed cup shape, which makes it look almost like some sort of Japanese silk brocade ball. These soon begin opening up forming a rose shape. But this only lasts about 2 to 3 days before the flowers begin opening up more. They are still pretty but just take on a more regular open petal flower shape. At this point, the flowers fade to a very pale color.

The pretty small red fruits are not poisonous, and it is possible to eat them, but I would not really say they are "edible". I plan to eventually try to cross it with an Evercrisp apple to try to improve the fruit quality, while attempting to retain the ornamental flower quality.

The fruits almost make the plant ornamental for a longer period of time than the blossoms do. The weight of the fruit bends down the branches and gives the little tree an almost 'weeping' form. The tree is packed with countless small bright red fruits, and it makes the tree look pretty. The fruits continue to hang on the tree through January, even after the leaves have dropped.