Devonshire May and June 18

GARDENING
The Heritage Apple Orchard at Rosemoor
Rosemoor's special orchard will keep rare Devon varieties alive for future generations.
Would you dare try a Pig’s Nose? A Sugar
Bush? Or even a Grand Sultan? We’re talking
about apple varieties of course. Any of these
would make a welcome break from the ubiquitous
Braeburn or Cox and yet, it would be almost
impossible to track them down today. Since the
1960s, two-thirds of our nation’s orchards have
been lost, and with them many apple varieties
have dwindled or even disappeared.
To safeguard these varieties, in March 2017, Royal
Horticultural Society (RHS) is planting forty
five cultivars of rare Devon apples to establish
a unique ‘mother orchard’ at its RHS Garden
Rosemoor in North Devon. For hundreds of
years, apples were part of the South West’s
industry, and this new orchard is both a tribute
to the region’s heritage as well as a type of
insurance policy; to ensure that these diverse
old varieties don’t die out and remain available
for future generations.
Jon Webster, Curator of RHS Garden Rosemoor
says:
“The RHS has been involved in fruit growing since
our founding in 1804 so we are thrilled that this
orchard has come to fruition with the help of
the South West Fruit Group and Devon-based
Orchards Live”.
“These apples were gathered from small collections,
from local farms and even private gardens,
which the local fruit group knew. The idea of
planting them in one place is to safeguard them
for the future ‒ a mother orchard”
The gathered apple collection was grafted onto
robust root stock and planted in February 2017.
Over the next ten years, the trees will carefully
be trained and pruned by RHS horticulturalists
as they grow into wide canopied trees.
Jim Arbury, RHS apple tree specialist at RHS
Garden Wisley says: “We grafted this heritage
collection of apples, as new trees grown from
seed will not come true to parental type ‒ and
it is the unique, quirky tastes, colours and sizes
we want to preserve”.
“Since the 1950s our collection has been at
RHS Garden Wisley, which now has 700 apple
cultivars, together with 120 pear cultivars, over
100 varieties of dessert plums and gages, plus
quinces, medlars and nuts. It’s exciting to have
a new heritage orchard in the West Country,
the spiritual home of British apple growing”.
This new orchard of eaters, cookers and cider
apples complements the current apple trees
in the Rosemoor fruit field, and like its existing
apple harvest, these rare and old varieties will
be used in the restaurant, turned into Rosemoor
cider and juice, or sold as bagged apples. A
taste of the past for visitors to the RHS West
Country Garden.
RHS Members have helped raise over £16,000
towards the establishment of the new orchard,
which has helped both in paying for the grafting
and will towards the long term care and
maintenance of the trees and surrounding area.
Next to come in our Devon's
Apple Heritage series
"Cider Making"
84
Countryside, History, Walks, the Arts, Events & all things Devon at: DEVONSHIRE magazine.co.uk