Bramley Apple Trees | Cooking Apples

Malus Bramley Apple Trees - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee

Bramley Apple trees are the most popular cooking apples of all time. Their full name is Bramley's Seedling.

Browse all of our other apple tree varieties here or read our guide to buying the right apple tree.

Characteristics of Bramley Trees:

Use: Cooking. Bakes to a puree. Superb flavour.

Partial Tip Bearer: not ideal for cordons & training on wires.

Tree's Growth Habit: Strong vigour. Spreading habit.

Harvest: Early October

Store & ripen in a cool, dry place: Until March.

General description of Bramley:
These are great big, flat bottomed, vivid apples, usually with a rusty coloured, striped flush. The white flesh has a sharp flavour and juices very well. Mixed with sweeter apple varieties, it makes excellent apple juice - go for about 70% bramley's, 30% other sweet varieties and it can also be added to cider. The sharp flavour mellows with storage, so they become interesting dessert apples by the spring if you have a taste for very tart apple. A raw Bramley's apple contains about 2.5 times more vitamin C than an average apple.
Although these fruit are so versatile, they excel at one thing. Few other cooking apple bake so easily into the deliciously light, fluffy, syrup infused puree that is the ideal cooked apple - the flavour is mouth wateringly tangy and fruity and the texture is simply perfect. These apples are ready to pick in early October and store very well, well into the following spring if they are kept nice and cool.
This tree is very vigorous and heavy cropping. Although it is a partial tip bear and can theoretically be grown as a wire trained cordon or espalier, this plant is so vigorous that we don't recommend it. It is best grown as a freestanding tree.

Rootstocks for Bramley apple trees:
All of our Bramley trees are grown on MM106 rootstocks.

Pollination Partners for Bramley:
Bramley is a self sterile triploid: its flowers must be pollinated to make any fruit and it cannot pollinate other trees.
Bramley is in pollination Group D.
This means that they can be pollinated by other apple trees in pollination Groups C, D and E.

See our Guide to Apple Tree Pollination for a full list of partners & more tips about pollination.

Bramley Disease notes:
Disease resistance: Brown Rot
Disease susceptibility: Scab (slight), Bitter Pit.

History & Parentage of Bramley
Raised from a seed in Nottinghamshire in 1809 by Mary Ann Brailsford, a young girl at the time, there is no record of this tree's parents. The house and garden were later bought by a Mr Bramley and the tree was first raised commercially by Mr Merryweather's Nursery in 1865. The RHS awarded it a first class certificate in 1893. The original Bramley tree is still alive, although in a sense all Bramley trees are the original because fruit trees are propagated through cuttings, which are effectively clones of their parent (above ground, at least).

How Apple Trees are Measured:
Our fruit trees are delivered in 3 sizes and you can also buy selected apple trees as ready made cordons.
Maiden: This unbranched tree is the smallest starting size. You can train espaliers and cordons from a maiden.
Bush: This is a freestanding tree with a short trunk of about 60cms. It will grow to about 3 metres tall.
Half-Standard: This will grow into a full sized apple tree, about 4 metres tall.

Notes on planting Bramley trees:
All fruit trees like a rich soil with decent drainage and plenty of sun. Apple trees love clay soil as long is doesn't become waterlogged.
Bramley isn't suitable for frosty sites and may crop poorly in the North & Scotland, as its flowers are easily damaged by late spring frosts.

Prepare your site before planting:
Improving the soil in advance of planting your apple trees will help them establish quickly and be productive for years to come. After you have destroyed all the weeds and grass (use a glyphosate based weed-killer for tough weeds), you can dig the soil over. Remove any stones and rubbish and mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades. You can do this on planting day, but when you do it weeks or months in advance, you will give the soil time to settle again.

Watch our video on how to plant a fruit tree for full instructions on planting a bush or half-standard sized tree.
If you are growing a maiden sized apple tree into a freestanding tree, a bamboo cane is enough support.
Remember to water establishing apple trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Apple Tree Planting Accessories:
For bush and half standard apple trees, our tree planting pack includes a wooden stake & rubber tie to support the tree and a biodegradable mulch mat with pegs, which protects the soil at the base of your tree from drying out and stops weeds from sprouting.
We recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all new trees, especially if your soil is poorly fertile.

After you plant an apple tree, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. If you didn't use a mulch mat, you will also need to weed around the tree. Both of these will be necessary for at least a year after planting.
The best tip for helping your tree to establish and quickly become mature and productive is to remove all the fruit that it produces in the first year after planting, as soon as the flowers fade. This will give the tree a chance to develop its roots, which are the foundation of the tree's strength.

Biennial habit: This tree naturally has a tendency to crop very well in some years, then give a poor harvest the following year. When your trees have established and begun their cropping life, it is important to notice if there is a large crop on the way and thin it out in late June or early July. This is best for the tree and will help it to give a more consistent crop from year to year.

All fruit trees will need formative pruning during their first years. Although this is not complicated, it is important to research and understand the process so that you can apply it to your particular tree and situation.

Harvesting Bramley apples:
Bramley crops in October. Bramley apples will store in a cool, frost-free place for up to 6 months.
Read more about picking and storing apples here.

Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery:
The basic delivery charge for all orders containing fruit trees of any size (bareroot or pot-grown) is £12.55 + VAT.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
You can choose the delivery week that suits you during checkout and we will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.

Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.

Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted fruit trees must be watered in dry weather while they are establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.

Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot fruit trees to gardeners and orchard owners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying fruit trees online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.

Your 12 Month Guarantee

If any of the plants that you buy from our nursery die within a year of delivery, we will replace them.
You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

We do ask for clear photos of the plants in the soil, both taking in the planting area and close up. These will help us to work out what went wrong so we can give you the right advice for looking after your replacements.

The most important thing to do with establishing plants is to water them in dry weather. Water very thoroughly, but not too frequently: allow the top 2 inches of soil to dry out before you water again. In hot summer weather, this should mean that you are watering 1 to 3 times per week, depending on your site's drainage and exposure to wind and sun.
If there is heavy rain, that counts as a watering for your plants. If there is only very light rain during hot weather, this probably won't be of much use to your plants and they will still need watering.

Weeding is also very important; we strongly recommend using a mulch mat (for trees) or mulch fabric (for hedges) if weeding your new plants will be impractical.

Outside your 1 Year Guarantee period?

If your plants die or get sick after their first year, you are still welcome to take some photos and send them in: we will still be happy to give you what advice we can.
We can't make any promises, but if you want to buy replacements from us, give us a call and we'll see if we can arrange a discount for you.

Place an order for £250 excluding VAT and delivery and we deliver it for FREE!

Bare-root Plants are only delivered in the winter season, from November to April. Pot grown plants can be delivered all year round

Advantages of Bare-root plants:

You pay less for the same size plants.

You can carry and plan them easily.

You only plant them in winter, so they need less maintenance after planting. The rain will water them for their first few months.

You get the biggest selection: Many trees are not sold pot-grown.

They are "asleep" in winter - this is the best time to transplant any tree.

They use fewer fertilisers & fungicides, less water and fuel in their production & delivery.

Advantages of Pot Grown plants:

Pot grown plants can be delivered & planted all year round.

Plants with tender roots & larger specimens must be delivered in pots.

Plants in pots can be kept for months longer if there is a delay in planting.

Our Advice to You:
If you can't wait to get planting, order Pot grown plants now.
If you are not in a hurry, order bare-root plants for delivery this winter. Simply add them to your basket and choose a winter delivery date that suits you during checkout. This will reserve your plants before they sell out.
We won't charge you until the day before delivery, so cancelling your order is always easy.

If you are only ordering chemicals and other small items, delivery is £3.50

Our delivery charge for all other orders is £6.50 + VAT.

If you live in the Scottish Highlands or the Isle of Wight, there will be an extra charge of £15 + VAT on top of the appropriate basic charge, as listed above.

If your order is over £250 exc. VAT, there will be no delivery charge.

If you are uncertain, just add items to your basket which will calculate the basic shipping charge for you.