Apple tree Helena

Do you want your garden or vegetable garden to look great and unusual on the outside all year round? Then you should plant one of the ornamental varieties of apple trees on your site. Probably one of the best options would be the Helena apple tree. And do not even think if you are doing the right thing by giving away the meters of your plot for an ornamental tree. After all, it will not only become a true decoration of your personal plot, transform it and give a bright and unusual look, but also delight you with its harvest. And why you should choose this particular apple variety, we will tell you further. Consider all the pros and cons of the Helena apple tree and the features of its cultivation and care.

Apple tree Helena: variety description

Apple tree Helena: photo of the variety

The Helena apple tree belongs to purely decorative varieties of trees, and its apples are not eaten, and in any form, either processed or fresh. Due to its decorative characteristics, this tree can decorate your garden at any time of the year, more precisely all year round. In the spring, the apple tree begins a flowering period, long and plentiful, which later turns into an amazing color of the leaves - purple, and lasts until late autumn. At the end of summer, bright apples of red color, on rather long pedicels, hang in whole clusters on apple trees. They are capable of not subside until late autumn. And in winter, the bark of young shoots and bark of a reddish hue serves as an ornament, it really looks great against the background of white snow.

Helena apple trees are small in size, so they are actively used as hedges and individual plantings in the alleys. These trees look great in landscape design compositions, as well as in a single planting, the tree also looks good against the background of administrative buildings. It is an excellent honey plant. In general, this variety appeared for the first time in Canada, and came to us later through Europe. Possesses quite good endurance to adverse weather conditions, as well as gas and dustiness of the air.

The Helena apple variety perfectly tolerates frost and cold, which makes this tree quite popular for growing areas with a lack of light and harsh climatic conditions. This apple tree will perfectly fulfill the role of decoration and an element of diluting a dull landscape.

Apple tree Helena: characteristics

The Helena apple tree grows relatively small in size, reaching only 4 meters in height. Due to this growth, the crown of the tree looks very spreading and powerful, although its diameter is about the same as its height, about 4 meters. This apple tree has a rather slow growth, the tree reaches its maximum growth by 10 years of age. Although this fact is considered a plus, since the tree can retain its compactness and decorative qualities for a long time. The fruits of this apple tree grow on rather long stalks and ripen in several pieces at once in one bunch.

These apples are very small in size, one can even say that they are small, since their maximum diameter is equal to the diameter of the berries of a large cherry. The inside is quite dense, with a spicy viscous taste, which is why apples are almost not edible.

The Helena apple variety feels great even at low air temperatures. Adult apple trees of this variety do not need insulation. Although in regions with a cool climate, young seedlings of this apple tree are insulated for better and faster adaptation, and also mulch around the trunk.The variety is endowed with a high resistance to various diseases, although prevention is still worth it, since the variety is constantly trying to attack the same diseases that spread to ordinary apple trees.

Apple tree Helena: decorative and Canadian

• Decorative red-leaved (or otherwise red-leaved apple tree). An ordinary Helena has green leaves. And the Helena red-leaved apple tree has a rather spreading and powerful crown, which grows up to 3 meters wide, but the apple tree can only grow up to 4 meters high. This variety belongs to hybrids. It was awarded its decorative effect throughout the growing season due to the huge number of leaves of a red-purple hue, which retain their shade until the fruit is formed, then their color can turn into emerald. Moreover, the bright color of the leaves of the Helena red-leaved apple tree remains until the very leaf fall. The Helena red-leaved apple tree is quite hardy to frost and diseases, which is well suited for growing in completely different regions, even in Siberia and the Urals.

Decorative red-leaved Apple tree Helena: photo of the variety

Canadian... An interesting view that came to us directly from Canada. The apple tree itself is quite small, but with a chic openwork crown. The foliage of this plant has a burgundy or purple hue. The variety got such a color of the leaves due to its ability to synthesize such a pigment as anthocyanin. The leaves have a non-standard shape, three-lobed and glossy surface shine.

Planting and care rules

Young seedlings of this apple tree begin to be planted in early spring, even before the budding period, or in the autumn period, a month before the arrival of frost. It all depends on the area of ​​further growth. Either the last days of March - the first half of April, or the second half of September - the first days of October.

The best option for planting this plant is weakly acidic or neutral fertile soil. If the land is sandy and rather poor, then a large hole is preliminarily prepared, which is filled with fertile soil with the addition of humus, rotted manure, mineral fertilizers and peat. Since this variety of apple trees is endowed with a sufficiently developed and dense root system, it should be properly straightened when planting. It is imperative to know that with a good refueling during planting, it will be possible not to make additional fertilizing for several more years, and what you have already introduced will be perfect for the normal development of the plant roots. After planting, a young tree must be tied to an additional support and watered abundantly. Moreover, it is necessary to carry out the watering procedure in the first year of the plant's life constantly, so that the seedling adapts faster and better to the new place.

Pre-select a place for planting the tree, it should be with sufficient lighting so that its flowering is especially solemn.

There is an opinion that it is much easier to care for ornamental varieties of apple trees than for ordinary varieties. And yet, in order for your apple tree to remain healthy and beautiful, and for many years it has not ceased to delight you with its decorative characteristics, a number of care requirements should be fulfilled:

• try to maintain the optimum soil moisture level for this tree,
• make timely feeding,
• to loosen the soil,
• obligatory weeding around the apple tree.

Much attention is paid to preventive measures for infection with various diseases, due to which the appearance of the apple tree, as well as its fruits and foliage, can be affected. Ornamental varieties of apple trees rarely, when they need crown formation, but in order to give the apple tree any specific shape and neat appearance, pruning or shearing of young plant shoots should be carried out. Thanks to this procedure, you can make the crown of a tree in the form of absolutely any shape and shape.A haircut is allowed in spring and summer, after the formation and regrowth of shoots. And at the end of summer, it is imperative to carry out sanitary pruning, in which dried, damaged or diseased branches are removed. You should know that a haircut for this type of apple trees is considered a good and useful procedure, since after it the crown of the tree is transformed and rejuvenated, and also recovers at a fairly rapid pace.

The active growth of shoots and a fast recovery rate after pruning help to use this variety not only as a separate tree, but also in landscape groups to use it in large compositions. The crown of this apple tree can be made in the form of a square, an oval, a circle, you can create pyramids and arches from it, as well as multi-level compositions.

At the time of flowering, this variety of apple trees emit a rather delicate and pleasant aroma, which attracts the attention of a large number of bumblebees, bees and other insects that pollinate the flowers. Due to this, these plants are remarkably pollinated with the help of them, and are also considered themselves good pollinators of other varieties of apple trees with the same flowering periods, for example, Golden Delicious, Idared, Gala, Pilot, Champion and many others.

Ripening and fruiting period

Decorative apple tree Helena: photo of the variety

The Helena apple tree begins to bear fruit as early as 2-3 years after planting. Initially, the number of ovaries in an apple tree is small, but this number increases with each subsequent year. For 4-5 years of its life, the tree already bears fruit quite abundantly. The flowering period for this plant begins from late April to early May, it all depends on the region of growth and the prevailing climatic conditions in this region. The Helena apple tree blooms quite abundantly, with large purple flowers, and under good conditions, flowering can last a whole month.

This variety has rather small fruits on long stalks with a bright red color. The fruits are collected in bunches and begin to ripen at the end of the summer period. Due to their small size, apples can hang on the tree for a long time and firmly, they do not have a tendency to fall off. They serve as a spectacular and beautiful decoration both in autumn and even in winter. That's just because of the taste of the pulp, and also because of the size, the fruits of these data are considered unsuitable for consumption, even if fresh, even processed.

Apple tree Helena: reviews

Having planted this beautiful apple tree of this variety in your garden or garden, you will not regret it at all. It will delight you with its splendor of the crown, which in spring is covered with flowers of a gentle pink shade in huge quantities, in the summer you will be amazed by the unusual purple foliage, and the twigs will give your eyes a wonderful view of interesting small apples until late autumn. The tree with its stunning appearance will give you strength to accomplish new feats and ideas.

Some of the reviews on the apple tree Helena:

Sergei. For me, this apple tree serves not only as a decoration, but also benefits, since I collect its fruits in the fall, then cut into small pieces, dry them and in winter this mixture is used as an additive to herbal tea. A delicate spicy aftertaste and wonderful smell comes out.

Olga. This tree has been growing for me for about 7 years. And not one, but 4 pieces at once. Initially, she planted it as a decorative one, I wanted to decorate my garden, and did not cut it off, it was a pity. Now Helena's apple trees have grown quite beautiful, but also large ones. They take up a lot of space on the site. Therefore, I advise you to cut it off, since the Helena apple tree grows pretty quickly.

Elena. And I don't like the Helena apple tree in the group composition. And here is one, on a clean green lawn - a beautiful landscape. Well, another big stone can be placed next to it.

Alexei. Helena's apple tree is simply superb. Personally, I landed two of them and made of them a kind of arch next to the gazebo. Beauty is practically all year round now.Even if the foliage has already fallen in the fall, the small apples still hang until frost and are pleasing to the eye.