Blenheim Orange Apple Trees

Blenheim Orange Apple Trees

Blenheim Orange apple trees produce early-mid season eating apples that also cook well. It is a handsome apple, flushed red/orange, sometimes with stripes all on a yellow green skin and some fruit can have little golden blown spots and markings.

As an eater, this large, flat shaped apple has quite a soft bite with a lovely flavour, slightly nutty, that goes tremendously well with cheese for dessert. They taste best when they have ripened off the branch for about 2 weeks.

We think the flavour is even better when the apple is cooked and very few apples make an Apple Charlotte as well as a Blenheim Orange.

This is a really vigorous tree and although it can be a bit slow to start fruiting, mature trees will crop so heavily that they need to have their fruit thinned to control their biennial habit.

Browse our range of apple trees, the full variety of fruit trees, or read our guide to buying the right apple tree.

Features:

• Eating: Sweet, nutty flavour with a crumbly texture that goes very well with cheese.
• Cooking: Bakes to a firm purée: slices on top of a pie will keep their shape.
• Partial Tip Bearer: suitable for cordons & training on wires.
• Tree's growth habit: Strong vigour. Spreading form with thick branches.
• Recommended for the North & Scotland
• Harvest: From late September to early October.
• Store & ripen in a cool, dry place: Until November.
• RHS Plants for Pollinators
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Rootstocks:
All of our Blenheim Orange trees are grown on MM106 rootstocks, except for the cordons, which are grown on M9 rootstocks.

Pollination Partners for Blenheim Orange:
Your trees are self sterile triploids: their flowers must be pollinated to make any fruit and they cannot pollinate other trees.
Blenheim Orange is in pollination Group D.
This means that they can be pollinated by other apple trees in pollination Groups C, D and E.
This tree's flowers have poor frost resistance.

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

Blenheim Orange Disease notes:
Disease resistance: Mildew (excellent), Fireblight, Brown Rot.
Disease susceptibility: Scab.

Did You Know?

This tree was found growing wild by a Mr Kempster, close to Blenheim Palace in about 1740. Originally it was called Kempsters Seedling, but the name changed when nurseries began to sell it in 1818.
It won the Banksian medal from the RHS in 1822. It was grown widely on both sides of the Atlantic until the 1930's, when it was replaced by modern varieties in commercial orchards.
It has produced several new trees, including Annie Elizabeth, Howgate Wonder, Newton Wonder, Edward VII, and Golden Reinette.

How Apple Trees are Measured & Delivered:
Our fruit trees are delivered in up to 3 shapes and you can also buy selected apple trees as ready made cordons.
Maiden: This unbranched tree is the smallest starting size. You can train maidens into espaliers and cordons.
Cordon: Blenheim Orange trees are partial tip-bearers, so they can be made into cordons and espaliers.
Bush: This is a style of freestanding tree with a short trunk of about 60cm. It will grow to about 3 metres tall.
Half-Standard: This is a freestanding style that will grow into a full sized, "normal" apple tree, about 4 metres tall.

Notes on planting Blenheim Orange trees:
All fruit trees like a rich soil with decent drainage, protection from the wind and plenty of sun. Apple trees like clay soil, as long as it is not prone to bad waterlogging.
This tree is suitable for organic growing in the drier East of Britain, where mildew is more common. It is not recommended for the North & Scotland because 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 Neudorff WeedFree Plus 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.

Spacing Blenheim Orange apple trees:
Freestanding bushes: 12-18 feet (4-6 metres) between trees and rows.
Freestanding half-standards: 18-30 feet (6-10 metres) between trees and rows.
In general, allow 1 more metre between rows than there is between each tree in the row.
Wire-trained cordons can be planted in rows 60-100cms apart.
Espaliers need to be spaced at 10-18 feet (3-6 metres) apart.

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.
If you are growing a cordon or espalier, you will need to install training wires to support them.
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.