For Mother’s day this year, I received two beautiful little apple trees. Not just any apple trees, these are special!
They only grow 8-10 feet tall, and two feet wide. This allows people with mediocre sized yards like me, and even apartment dwellers with a sunny balcony to grow these apples. Stacks of apples will grow along a narrow trunk in a columnar, bottle-brush shape.
They are cold hardy (zones 4-9), and are disease resistant.
This tree was developed by Dr. Jaroslav Tupy from the Czech Republic. They have a pale pink bloom in the spring and fruiting begins in early summer. They come in four varieties, two of which must be planted for cross-pollination.
From what I have read, these apples will produce a large harvest of full-sized, delicious fruit for a medium-sized family to enjoy. I would love to hear from anyone who is in the second or third year of growing these!
Here is an easy/delicious apple pie recipe:
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 ½ tablespoons white flour
5-6 tablespoons water
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
6-8 tart apples – peeled and sliced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Melt butter in medium saucepan. Add flour to make a rue. Then whisk in water for a thick, gooey consistency. Remove from heat and stir/toss with remaining ingredients.
Fill your pie and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until apples are fork tender. Allow to cool a bit before slicing and top with French vanilla ice cream!
createityourself 
I long to live in a place where I can grow fruit and veg outdoors.
In the meantime I will use the apples I just bought to try your tart!
(What are tart apples?)
Any apples will work, but I don’t like stuff that’s overly sweet. Tart apples are usually the green ones.
Recipe sounds yummy! Thank you for sharing about the apple trees. I’ve never heard of this variety, but I think I might need some! 🙂
I love the little space they take up…I’m actually considering two more!
i love apples ! you are right,they are perfect for small places. I myself as a kid always had the pleasure of climbing the trees & eating an apple right there,very fond memories!
Apples seem to have memories attached! Climbing an apple tree, apple pie, apple sauce, even throwing them at someone…haha. These trees won’t accomidate all that, but I will surely love juicing and cooking with them!
Are the trees in the photo yours? If so, they are already doing very well?
Yep, freshly planted!
Recipe sounds wonderful! Apples don’t do so well in our CA zone. Your trees look very healthy! Wish I had room for an apple tree. I’d give it a try.
Congratulations on your apple trees. My grandparents had an orchard and while it was almost spent when I was growing up I have fond memories of pies and apple butter. Still my favorite pie.
This is great. My husband and I are endlessly talking about how to get the most out of whatever space we end up settling on – and this sounds like it’s right up our alley.
We live in an old second floor apartment right in the middle of our little town – so space is at a premium. I have our little roof covered in pots filled with herbs and flowers 🙂
…I wonder if I could fit a *small* apple tree up here…
Yes, the columnar apple trees are great for small spaces; even large pots! Thanks so much for commenting!
I’ve had my two columnar apple trees for 3 years now – both in containers. The first year, beautiful flowers and delicious fruit. Not quite the gigantic or large specimens you see on the tag but they were delicious! Last year one tree didn’t flower, so no fruit. The other had a small branch coming out in the middle. The branch flowered and had fruit. Nothing above the branch happened. No leaves, no flowers, nothing. The fruit was still delicious, and you must pick some off so there’s enough energy for the rest to grow. I am clueless as to why they stopped production. If anyone knows, please send me a clue! Thanks.
We purchased two of these trees last year. We had a few small, tart apples last fall. I have higher hopes for this year. The trees were absolutely covered in beautiful flowers this spring so I can’t wait to see what we get in fruit! Looking forward to hearing other people’s experiences.