Worcester Pearmain Apple Trees

• Variety: Worcester Pearmain, an early English eating Apple
• Latin name: Malus domestica 'Worcester Pearmain'
• Use: Eating and juicing. Sweet, with a strawberry flavour when fully ripe
• Sold as: Bareroot maiden, bush and half-standard
• Rootstock: MM106
• Mature size: A bush is kept at about 3m. 4.5m by 4.5m if left unpruned
• Pollination: Group C. Partly self-fertile: it crops better with a partner
• Bearing: Tip bearer
• Picking: September
• Storage: About a week
• Position: Sun for the best crop. Takes an exposed site
• Wildlife: RHS Plants for Pollinators
• Hardiness: H6, hardy through the British winter
• RHS Award of Garden Merit: Yes (1993)
• Delivered: Bareroot, November to April. Collection from Castle Cary also available

Worcester Pearmain is the early English eating Apple: red over green, crisp, sweet, and tasting of strawberries when it has ripened in a warm summer. It crops heavily and regularly, copes with exposed gardens, and holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Worcester Pearmain Apple Trees

The Worcester Pearmain epitomises an English apple, rosy red cheeks on a green background, crisp cream flesh, a sweet flavour that can veer towards strawberry when ripe, and enough of the Blitz spirit in it to survive the chilliest parts of the United Kingdom. Its blossom is particularly attractive and it crops early so that you have fruit just when facing the first of the autumn evenings. Although the tree won't grow to the height of many other apple trees it produces a generous amount of fruit each year. It also happens to be very easy to grow.

Garden Design Ideas

The enormous advantages of this apple tree is that the apples are fully ripe early in September and that it doesn't mind being grown somewhere fairly exposed. Because the apples have to ripen in a relatively short period of time the flavour will depend on that summer's weather. The hotter it has been, the sweeter and more strawberry-like the taste. The apples do not keep however and so for a continuous supply of eating apples you should try to plant a later eating variety at the same time. The advantage of this is that planting another apple from the correct pollinating group will maximise your crop from both trees. An excellent recommendation would be Adam's Pearmain which also copes with exposed sites and produces a very different style of eating apple in October. It won't take long for your nearest and dearest to work out what a scrumptious apple Worcester Pearmain is on its own or cut up in salads, but should you have any left over they make delicious juice too. And for those who cannot resist making all parts of their garden utterly beautiful why not artfully arrange a climbing rose through its boughs?

History & Trivia

The offspring of Devonshire Quarrendon, the Worcester Pearmain has been used in many breeding programmes to try to intensify its strawberry taste, early ripening and attractive red flush. Successes include Katy, Lord Lambourne and Discovery, which all worth adding to your collection. And it did indeed come from Worcester as early as 1870. Pearmain comes from Old French, meaning pear.

Planting Companions

Worcester Pearmain flowers in group C, and sets its best crop with a partner from group B, C or D. Its own offspring Discovery is in group C and ripens before it, and Egremont Russet, in group B, follows it in late September. A Crab Apple such as Golden Hornet will pollinate it too. Check any pairing with our pollination partner tool. Dust the roots with Rootgrow as you plant.

Why Buy Your Apple Tree from Ashridge?

Ashridge has sold trees since 1949 and is a Which? Best Plant Supplier 2025. Your Worcester Pearmain is grafted onto MM106 rootstock, and maidens are pre-pruned before despatch for the form you choose. Bareroot trees are lifted to order while dormant and guaranteed for 12 months.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Worcester Pearmain need a pollination partner?

It sets some fruit alone, and much more with a partner. It flowers in group C, also called group 3, so any Apple in group B, C or D will do, and so will a Crab Apple.

What does tip bearer mean for pruning?

It is a tip bearer: it fruits at the ends of last year's shoots. Do not shorten every shoot in winter, or you cut off the crop. Thin out whole branches instead.

How big does the tree grow?

On MM106, a pruned bush is kept at about 3 metres and a half-standard at about 4 metres. Left unpruned, the rootstock gives a tree about 4.5 metres tall and wide.

Can you train it as a cordon or espalier?

It is not the best choice. Cordons and espaliers are pruned back to spurs every summer, which removes the shoot tips where this variety fruits. Grow it as a bush or a half-standard.

Does it really taste of strawberries?

When it is well ripened, yes. Scarlet fruit has an intense strawberry flavour. Picked too soon, or after a cool summer, it is merely sweet.

How long do the Apples keep?

About a week. It is an Apple to eat from the tree or to juice. Plant a later variety beside it if you want Apples into the winter.

When are the trees delivered?

Bareroot only, from November to April, while the trees are dormant. You can order at any time of year and your tree is lifted and sent once the season opens.