Best eating apple variety for garden

Check out Stephen Hayes on youtube, he has a few videos dicussing different varietys of apples. Plus if you contact him soon he may be able to send you scion wood for grafting. Let us know what you think


Steve

Holy Moly ... Forgot I had started this thread, just read all responses .... Brilliant reading Thanks All

Ordered my Spartan yesterday ....., surprised no one mentioned Chivers Delight , came up trumps for flavour in lots of reviews ... Here's one from good old Monty

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2000/oct/29/gardens

Poundstretcher have just got their fruit trees in again £4.99 gets you a good 6' Apple, Plum, Cherry or Pear Tree ... quite a few different varieties of each tree - I picked up a nice looking Apple Tree - Discovery - It's fairly early fruiting and quite a sweet and juice dessert apple ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_(apple)

Same tree in my local nursery this week £17.95 and looking less healthy than the one I got in Poundstretcher !!

"no one mentioned Chivers Delight , came up trumps for flavour in lots of reviews"

I totally agree with you Beeno. I used to visit the orchards where this variety was grown commercially (near Cambridge) when I was an ADAS advisor.
It is a very crisp variety with a similar texture to Pink Lady but with a Cox flavour. It will keep for a long time without loosing its texture and flavour. Will keep in the salad part of a fridge for upto 3 months. If I was living in Cambridge I would be growing Chivers Delight, but I now live in Norfolk and grow old Norfolk varieties.

Good luck with the Spartan.

Mike

Cheers Mike

One to add to the Wish List !

I have one of each of these, planted around the turn of the millennium. Sadly, my Ashmeads Kernel died - which was the variety that got me into old varieties in the first place. I've added a few comments

The bees fly over them all to the OSR ;-)

Red George Cave - wonderful first early; much better than Discovery
Orleans Reinette - good in a good year
Epicure - also needs a good year
Brownlees Russet - prone to canker in a bad year but keeps very well
Ribston Pippin - not flourishing
Pitmaston Russet Nonpareil - tiny apples; unusual acidic flavour
Adams Pearmain - fantastic flavour; unusual shape; mid-season
Wyken Pippin - horrible (but pretty)
Howgate Wonder - good for the garden show; cooker but a bit bland
Charles Ross - big mid-season - supposedly can cook but we eat as desert
Sturmer Pippin - mine is struggling
Ellisons Orange
D’Arcy Spice - taking a long time to grow up
Tydemans Late Orange - just wonderful; my favourite apple
Wiliam Crump - blood red colour and great flavour
Blenheim Orange - local
Bakers Delicious - second early; lots of juice & sweetness

Thanks Firefly

Makes for fascinating reading

Really wanted " Spartan " after all the reviews I had read..

Sold out everywhere eventually located 2 in a Garden centre in Cork , had sent to me, next day happened to be in Aldi.... Typical... Sitting there in the € 4.99 bare root tree box Bloody Spartan....

BrianO said:

Really wanted " Spartan " after all the reviews I had read..

Sold out everywhere eventually located 2 in a Garden centre in Cork , had sent to me, next day happened to be in Aldi.... Typical... Sitting there in the € 4.99 bare root tree box Bloody Spartan....

Click to expand...

Ha ...I bought one this week from Aldi for my collection £3.99 .. I also bought a Discovery from Poundstretcher at £4.99 ... I've had lots of trees from Aldi and they are really good. The Poundstretcher ones look identical ...