orchards

The apples are bursting into life and I’m wishing I’d been more organised and ordered the heritage apples I plan to espalier around the fences enclosing the vegetable garden. Now it will have to be next winter. Inspired by the extraordinary orchard at RHS Wisley, I am planning an exciting display of old English and French cultivars. First on my list was the famous Cox’s Orange Pippin which will fruit for the first season this year. It is widely regarded as the finest of all dessert apples. Cox’s Orange Pippin ‘Pippin’ is an old English word derived from the French word for ‘seedling’. The same word can be seen in the modern French for a plant nursery or garden centre – ‘pepiniere’. Like many old apple varieties Cox’s Orange Pippin was discovered as a chance seedling. If you would like to research this further, here’s a link to the Heritage Fruits Society www.heritagefruitssociety.org.au/

About the Heritage Fruits Society

The Heritage Fruits Society is based in Melbourne, Australia. Their aim is to conserve heritage fruit varieties (also known as ‘heirloom fruits’) on private and public land. They enable and encourage society members to research this wide range of varieties and to inform the public on the benefits of heritage fruits for health, sustainability and biodiversity.
You can read about their history here and you can find their list of heritage apples here.

A list of some of the Heritage/Heirloom apples you might like to consider from Petty’s Orchard in Templestowe, Victoria, Australia. It is one of Melbourne’s oldest commercial orchards, and it holds the largest collection of heritage/heirloom apple varieties on mainland Australia, with more than two hundred varieties of old and rare apples. The maintenance of the apple tree collection is done by Heritage Fruits Society volunteers. Anyone can come and help. Find out more!

Petty’s Orchard Complete Heritage Apple Collection

Abas

Akane

Albany Beauty

Alexander

Alfriston Mother (=American Mother)

Andre Sauvage Antonovka Kameniohka

Atlanta

Autumn Tart

Baldwin

Ball’s Seedling

Barry

Bashfort

Batman’s Tree

Batt’s Seedling

Baumann’s Reinette

Beauty of Bath

Beauty of Stoke

Bec D’Oie

Bedford Pippin Cross

Bedfordshire Foundling

Belle de Boskoop

Belle de Magny

Berner Rosen

Bismarck

Blenheim Orange

Blue Pearmain

Bonza Boy’s Delight

Bramley’s Seedling

Breakwell’s Seedling

Brittle Sweet

Brown’s Apple

Browns Pippin

Bulmer’s Norman

Buncum

Butters Early Red

Carolina Red June

Cataignier

Cayuga

Cayuga Redstreak

Chandler

Cimetiere du Pays

Cleopatra

Climax

Coldstream Guard

Cornish Aromatic

Cornish Gilliflower

Cox’s Orange Pippin

Cox’s Orange Pippin Red

Cox’s Pomona

Cranberry Pippin

Crofton

Crofton Red

Dabinett

Delicious

Caldicott

Delicious Glen Vimey

Delicious Hi Early

Delicious Richared

Delicious Starkrimson

Democrat

Democrat (Black)

Devonshire Quarrenden

Dewdney’s Seedling

Discovery Doctor Hogg

Dunn’s Seedling (Monroe’s Seedling)

Duquesne

Early Victoria

Edward VII

Edwards Coronation

Eggleton Styre

Egremont Russett

Eldon Pippin

Ellison’s Orange

Emneth Early (=Early Victoria)

Esopus Spitzenburg

Esopus Sptizenburg

Fameuse (=Snow Apple)

Fenouillet Gris

Forfar Pippin

Forge

French Crab (=Winter Greening)

Freyberg

Frost

Fuji

Gala

Geante D’Exposition

Geeveston Fanny

Geoff’s Tree

George Carpenter

George Neilson

Gildering Sage D’espagne

Gladstone

Golden Delicious

Golden Harvey (=Brandy Apple)

Grandmere

Granny Smith

Gravenstein

Gravenstein Early

Grosseille

Hollow Crown

Holly

Hubbardton Nonsuch

Hyslop Crab

Ida Red

Improved Foxwhelp

Irish Peach

Isaac Newton’s Tree

James Grieve

Jaunet

Jerseymac

Jonagold

Jonared

Jonathan

Jonathan Red

Jongrimes

July Red

Keswick Codlin

Kidds Orange Red

King Cole

King David

King of the Pippins

King of Tompkins County

Kingston Black

Kirk’s Seedling

Lady Finger

Lady William

Lalla

Laxton’s Fortune

Laxton’s Superb

Legana

Lodi

London Pippin (Five Crown)

Lord Derby

Lord Lambourne

Lord Nelson

Lord Suffield

MacIntosh Early

Magnolia

Maigold

McIntosh Early

Melba

Melrose

Merton Worcester

Michelin

Minjon

Monarch Cross

Monroe

Murray Gem

Mutsu

Newtown Green Pippin

Nickajack

Norfolk

Northern Spy

Opalescent

Orange de per

Orleans Reinette

Ortley (=Cleopatra)

Peasgood’s Nonsuch

Pine Golden Pippin

Pittmaston Pineapple Fameuse (=Pomme de Neige)

Poor House

Potts’ Seedling

Prima

Prince Alfred

Prince Edward

Queen Cox

Quinte

Ranger

Red Astrachan

Red Delicious

Red Granny Smith

Red Winesap

Red Winter Pearmain (=Buncombe)

Reinette d’Angleterre

Reinette du Canada

Reinette Musque Rheinette de Macon

Rhode Island Greening

Ribston Pippin

Rokewood

Rome Beauty

Roundway Magnum Bonum

Rous La Tour

Royal Jubilee

Saint Edmunds Pippin

Saint Edmunds Russet

Scarlet Nonpariel

Scarlet Staymared

Scotia

Spartan

Splendour

Starkes Earliest

Starking Hi Early

Statesman

Stayman’s Winesap

Stewart’s Seedling

Summer Strawberry

Sunbury Late

Sundowner

Sweet Coppin

Symond’s Winter

Twenty Ounce

Tydeman’s Early Worcester

Upton Pyne

Vista Bella

Winter transparent Early

Woolbrook Russet

Worcester Pearmain

Yarlington Mill

Yates

Inspired by the lovely gardens of the late Nicole de Vesian in Provence, I am working on developing a clipped garden to the north of our kitchen, so the view from our balcony will always be green and orderly. Not that I’m really the orderly type – but over the past few years I have found the profusion of roses, foxgloves and delphiniums I had planted in long and deep perennial beds, slightly overwhelming and busy. And when the gorgeous, blowsy spring show is over and the harsh light of the Australian summer burns out the colour, the effect looks raggedy very quickly. And by Christmas it is tired and hot and exhausted.

So bit by bit I’m removing all the flowering perennials from the section closest to the house and replacing them with clipped box, cistus, bay, Viburnum Tinus and miniature abelia. It requires a lot of patience as the plants need to be spaced far enough apart for future growth and so there’s a lot of mulch still on view! But one day, I am dreaming of a view such as this seen at the Château de Marqueyssac.

The Gardens Of Marqueyssac

Comfortably nestled into the hills of Perigord are the Gardens Of Marqueyssac. The gardens were planted in 1861 by Julien De Cerval – a maniacal gardener who gave the last thirty years of his life to build Marqueyssac. Boxwoods were chosen as a key plant of the garden because of their fullness, robust texture, and radiant green color. Every path in the garden was put there with an acute intent, what seems accidental and whimsical, was in fact carefully thought out. De Cerval wanted to create a romantic experience for the garden’s visitors where they would get lost within the paths and enjoy the organic shapes of the plants. In recent years the gardens and nearby castles went under a full renovation to restore De Cervals early dream of the garden and bring people from all over the world to witness it.