Evereste Crab Apple Trees

• Variety: Evereste, the crab apple that does everything
• Latin name: Malus 'Evereste' (also sold as Perpetu)
• Type: Deciduous tree
• Rootstock: MM106, the same as our apple trees
• Mature height: About 4.5m (15ft) on MM106
• Spread: About 4.5m
• Habit: Broadly conical
• Flowers: White, 5cm across, opening from red buds
• Fruit: To 2.5cm, yellowish-orange to orange-red, hanging into winter
• Self-fertile: Yes, and a pollinator for eating apples
• Soil: Any moderately fertile, well-drained soil
• Position: Full sun. Tolerates partial shade
• Hardiness: H6, hardy through the British winter
• RHS AGM: Yes (1993)
• Wildlife value: RHS Plants for Pollinators
• Good for: Small gardens, crab apple jelly, winter fruit
• Similar varieties: John Downie (the classic jelly crab), Red Sentinel (red fruit)
• Sold as: Bareroot trees 200/225cm, half-standards, and standards of 6/8cm and 8/10cm girth. Pot-grown standard in a 12 litre pot and half-standard in a 10 litre pot
• Plant: Bareroot from November to April. Pot-grown in any month
• Delivered: Bareroot November to April, pot-grown all year when in stock. Collection from Castle Cary also available

Evereste is a small, freely flowering crab apple, about 4.5m high and wide on MM106 rootstock, broadly conical, with white flowers from red buds and orange fruit to 2.5cm that hang into winter. It holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit, is self-fertile, and will pollinate your eating apples.

Evereste Crab Apple Trees

Evereste crab apple trees are so floriferous that you can hardly see the branches under all the blossom. The dark pink buds open into mostly white blooms, with some clusters keeping a bit of a pink tinge. These mature into a big crop of small, yellow-orange fruit that are perfect for crab apple jelly, apple sauce or for pressing into a mixed cider brew. The glossy green leaves turn rich shades of gold in the autumn.

A tidy upright plant that becomes semi-weeping under the weight of crabs, she can reach a height of about 4.5 metres.

Browse our variety of crab apple trees or our full range of ornamental garden trees.

Delivery season: Crab apple trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-April inclusive. Pot-grown trees are delivered all year, whenever they are in stock.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they're best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it's convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Growing Evereste Crab Apple Trees

Any well drained soil. This is a very tough tree that will do well beside a road in the inner city. Crab apples in general perform well on poor soil if you improve it a bit with compost, then mulch yearly. They love heavy clay on sites that are well drained.
Full sun is ideal if you want to harvest the fruit, but partial shade is fine if you plan to leave them as decoration.

When your new tree is establishing, it's best to remove fruitlets from the ends of the branches after flowering to prevent them from bending the branches.

History & Trivia

Bred in France in the late 1970's at INRA, the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (which is now INRAE) and released in the UK in 1980, it is allegedly named after one Mademoiselle Eve Reste, but we suspect that might be a bit of a joke on top of a pun.
Reste is a real but rare French surname, and the sentence "Eve reste" means "Eve stays".
This variety's fruit remain on the branches for an exceptionally long time (it is also called Perpetu), which brings us to the original Eve leaving the garden of Eden over that unfortunate business with picking and eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (it was probably a fig, rather than an apple, but that's another story).

It won an RHS Award of Garden Merit in 1993, and Monty Don likes it so much that he put four in his Paradise Garden at Longmeadow.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

Planting Companions

Evereste earns its keep twice in an orchard, because every crab apple is self-fertile and a willing pollinator for eating apples: it is grown on MM106, the same rootstock as our apple trees, so it keeps pace with them. Plant it within bee-reach of your apple trees. For jelly, John Downie is the old favourite to set beside it, and Red Sentinel hangs on to glossy red fruit as long as Evereste holds its orange. There are more trees on this scale in our trees for small gardens.

Why Ashridge?

Ashridge has sold trees since 1949 and was named Which? Best Plant Supplier 2025. You can have Evereste six ways, bareroot or pot-grown, from a young tree to a full standard. Bareroot trees are guaranteed for 12 months, and so are pot-grown trees delivered leafless between November and March.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Evereste and John Downie crab apples?

Both are white-flowered and both make good jelly. John Downie, raised in 1875, is the traditional jelly crab. Evereste holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit and keeps its fruit into winter.

Will an Evereste crab apple pollinate my apple trees?

Yes. Every crab apple we sell is self-fertile, and crabs are planted in commercial orchards as pollinators for eating apples. Evereste flowers so heavily that there is pollen to spare.

Is Evereste a good tree for a small garden?

Yes. The RHS calls it a small tree, and on MM106 rootstock it stops at about 4.5m high and wide. You get blossom, fruit and autumn colour from one trunk. Few trees work harder for the space.

Can you eat Evereste crab apples?

Cooked, yes: they make a sharp jelly and go well in apple sauce. Raw they are hard and sour. Take the pips out first, because the seeds contain toxins.

How long does the fruit stay on an Evereste?

Well into winter. Persistent fruit is what Evereste is known for, and its trade name, Perpetu, says as much. Birds take the crabs eventually, usually after the first hard weather.