'Bramley' Apple Trees

'Bramley' Apple Trees

Bramley Apple trees produce the most popular cookers. These are great big, flat-bottomed apples, usually with a rusty coloured, striped flush. The white flesh is the most acidic of British cooking apples; a raw Bramley apple contains about 2.5 times more vitamin C (ascorbic acid) than the average.

Bramley Seedlings have a distinctive, sharp flavour that mellows with storage so that by spring they're almost tart dessert apples. Freshly picked, they juice very well indeed and mixed with other apple varieties, it makes excellent apple juice - go for about 70% Bramley's, 30% sweet varieties. It's also added to many ciders.

Unlike dual-purpose apples such as Blenheim Orange or Howgate Wonder, which keep shape when cooked, Bramley breaks down completely - which is exactly what you want for a smooth apple sauce or a light-textured pie filling. If you prefer your apple slices that stay intact, say in a tart, then you might prefer an even firmer cooker like Grenadier, but for classic British baking, the trusty Bramley remains unbeatable.

Bramley Seedlings are vigorous trees with heavy crops ready to pick in early October. They're partial-tip bearers, so only need pruning to keep them open or to remove dead wood.

Browse our other apple trees or read our guide to buying the right apple tree.

Features

• 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.
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Rootstocks for Bramley apple trees:

All of our Bramley trees are grown on MM106 rootstocks except bushes which are on M26.

Pollination Partners for Bramley:
Bramley is a self-sterile triploid in Group D: its flowers must be pollinated by other apple trees in pollination Groups C, D and E to make any fruit, and it cannot pollinate other trees. Use our interactive Guide to Apple Tree Pollination for a full list of partners & more tips about pollination.

History & Trivia

Known by all as a Bramley, the proper name is Bramley's Seedling.

The tree was raised from a seed in 1809 - hence the "Seedling" bit - by Mary Ann Brailsford, a young girl at the time (undoubtedly with help from her mum), with no record of its parents.
The house, 75 Church Street in Southwell, Nottinghamshire - now owned by Nottingham Trent University and garden, were later bought by a Mr Matthew Bramley, and the tree was first raised commercially by Mr Merryweather's Nursery in 1865.

The original tree was cared for by Miss Nancy Harrison for some 70 years between the end of WW2 and 2014 before she passing the torch on to Nottingham Trent University.

It was hit by lightning in the early 1900's and fell over, but shrugged off the damage and re-rooted itself.

However, at the time of writing, it is not long for this world: it contracted honey fungus in 2016, but as of 2022 the tough old girl was still fruiting.
In a sense, all Bramley trees are the original because they are propagated through grafts, which mean they are clones of their parent (above ground, at least).

The RHS awarded it a first class certificate in 1893.