Growing a crabapple tree

[abseeley]

I'm new here, hi, and ive been doing some pretty intense googling trying to find out the best way to go about growing a crabapple tree. I'm new to the whole growing scene but I have a general idea what I'm doing. Ive read that its possible to just soak seeds overnight and then placing between wet paper towel until germination. Then ive also read they need to go through a 'winter' by placing them in the freezer in a damp paper towel for a few months then planting them?

I'm growing them for the flowers not the fruit and I plan to start it in a pot and eventually move it to a large barrel if this is even possible. I read that it can take up to 20 years for flowers to actually start appearing in spring, so I'm thinking thats out, I'm patient but not that patient. Ive also read that you can take a cutting and have an almost immediate mature tree once it roots but I cant for the life of me figure out how to do this. Can anyone shed some light here? Pictures are very welcome!

Any help is welcome thanks

[Roger]

Taking cuttings saves you several years of growing time but still it takes several years to produce a nice tree. A lot faster, however, than doing it from seed.

This site has some introductory and basic instructions about making and rooting cuttings and is a decent starting point for learning how to make cuttings, in my opinion:
[url]https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8702.html[/url]

According to the species chart at the above site, crabapple cuttings are best done at the softwood or semi-hardwood stage. Semi-hardwood stage would be generally around this time of the year.

The regular posters over on the bonsai boards at this site have a lot of information to offer about propogation by cuttings as well; you can ask them for their professional opinion too

[jdeb]

I would spend the money and buy a named variety - they do not cost much. Producing a well shaped tree takes time, and seedling crab apples do not come true. That means it might never flower and you could be wasting your time completely. There is also a chance you produce a wonder tree.... but choosing a named crab gives you certainty about the flower. BTW even if you don't eat the fruit, it is still very pretty at a time of year when there is not too much of interest about.