Hupeh/Tea Chinese Crab Apple Trees

• Variety: Hupeh Crab Apple, the Tea Crab, with white blossom and cherry-like fruit
• Latin name: Malus hupehensis
• Sold as: Bareroot standard, 6/8 and 8/10cm girth
• Mature size: Up to about 6m tall
• Habit: Vigorous, with a broad crown
• Blossom: Pink buds opening to single, white, fragrant flowers in spring
• Fruit: Small, round and red, like cherries, hanging into winter
• Best soil and site: Any moderately fertile soil that drains. Sun or partial shade
• Wildlife: RHS Plants for Pollinators
• Hardiness: H6, hardy through the British winter
• RHS Award of Garden Merit: Yes (1993)
• Delivered: Bareroot, November to April. Collection from Castle Cary also available

The Hupeh or Tea Crab Apple is a vigorous small tree with a broad crown: pink buds open to fragrant white blossom in spring, and the small red fruit that follow look like cherries and hang on into winter. It holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit and grows in sun or partial shade.

Hupeh/Tea Chinese Crab Apple Trees

Hupeh or Tea Crabapple, Malus hupehensis, is a Chinese crab apple variety, a small, goblet shaped tree covered with white blossom in spring, touched with pink, which matures into bright red fruit that look like cherries and either make the most delightful pink crab apple jelly, or adorn the branches well into winter. It looks superb in Autumn and makes a lovely specimen for the centre of a lawn.
Older trees will start to spread out and can develop a wide, rounded canopy up to about 6 metres tall.

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

Delivery season: Crab apple trees are delivered bareroot from late autumn to early spring, November to April.
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. Our standard trees are measured by the girth of the trunk in centimetres, one metre above the ground, not by their height.

Growing Hupeh Crab Apple Trees

Any well drained soil, tolerates partial shade and urban pollution well. It's drought tolerant and not bothered by strong winds, but can't grow on the coast.

Please Note: This tree is sterile and won't pollinate other apple trees. If you are looking for a pollinator for an orchard choose either John Downie and Golden Hornet. The bees don't mind, however, and will eat their fill.

History & Trivia

The adventurous Ernest "Chinese" Wilson (1876-1930) first described it in 1901 in Hubei province (spelt Hupeh in his day) in central China.

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

Pair it with Red Glow, the other Crab Apple here of the wild, species type. John Downie is a Crab Apple grown for jelly. For berries of another kind, look at our Rowan and Whitebeam trees. Dust bareroot roots with Rootgrow as you plant.

Why Ashridge?

Ashridge has sold trees since 1949 and is a Which? Best Plant Supplier 2025. Your Hupeh Crab Apple comes as a bareroot tree, lifted to order while dormant and guaranteed for 12 months. Plant it between November and April, and it will establish readily.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big does a Hupeh Crab Apple grow?

Up to about 6 metres tall. Older trees spread into a wide, rounded crown.

Why is it called the Tea Crab?

In China, its leaves were brewed as a tea. The Latin name hupehensis means from Hubei, the province in central China where Ernest Wilson found it in 1901.

Can you make jelly from the fruit?

Yes. The little red fruit make a pink Crab Apple jelly. Whatever you do not pick hangs on the bare branches into winter.

Will it grow in shade?

In partial shade, yes: it will tolerate it. It also wants moderately fertile soil that drains.

What does Malus mean?

It is simply the Romans' word for an Apple tree, and it covers Crab Apples and eating Apples alike.

When are the trees delivered?

Bareroot only, from November to April, while the trees are dormant. You can order at any time of year and your tree is lifted and sent once the season opens.