Blenheim Orange Apple Trees

Blenheim Orange Apple Trees

Blenheim Orange apple trees produce early-mid season eating apples that also cook well. 
Browse our full range of apple trees, see the full variety of fruit trees, or read our guide to buying the right apple tree.

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. 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. The fresh apples 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.

Characteristics:

• Use: Eating. A sweet and nutty flavour with a crumbly texture that goes very well with cheese. When cooked it bakes to a firm puree: 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.
• Harvest: From late September to early October.
• Store & ripen in a cool, dry place: Until November.

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.

History & Parentage:
This tree was first 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.
This tree's parents are unknown, but 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 60cms. 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.