Just what the doctor ordered

Hillier’s Nurseries introduces what will surely become the most widely planted of this year’s launches: Malus Crimson Cascade (above), a pendulous crab apple. In spring, its weeping branches are festoons of cerise blossom to vie with the boldest of ornamental cherries. What’s more, its new foliage is maroon-flushed and its fruits, although inedible, are garnet and bountiful.

Dr Alan Warwick, an 87-year-old industrial chemist and devotee of horticulture, spotted this prodigy in his garden among the seedlings that arose when he sowed pips of the popular (but upright to spreading) Malus Aldenhamensis. He approached Hillier, which lost no time in putting it into production—and quite right, too.