All About Suffolk

Apples  –  dessert varieties

Clopton Red                           
Wickhambrook 1946
Pick late Sept. Use Oct – Nov
Pollination group E
A seedling grown from a Cox’s Orange Pippin raised by Justin Brooke of Wickhambrook Nurseries in 1946. Introduced commercially in 1961. A medium-sized heavy cropper with a bright red flushed skin. A sweet juicy apple with a delicate aromatic flavour.

Honey Pippin                          
Wickhambrook c.1955
Pick mid Sept. Use Sept – Nov
Pollination group C
A Cox -like variety submitted to the National Fruit Collection in 1981. Developed at Justin Brooke’s Wickhambrook Nurseries in the 1950s. It has better disease resistance than true Cox. Quite pearmain-shaped. Honeyed, sweet, juicy, crisp almost yellow flesh. It is a triploid variety so requires another two different apple varieties nearby for successful pollination.

Maclean’s Favourite   
Sudbury 1820  
Pick mid Oct. Use Nov – Jan
Pollination group E
Raised by Dr. Allan Maclean of Sudbury. Parentage unknown. Green in colour with broken orange-red stripes. It has yellow flesh, sweet and rich in flavour. A shy grower in its first years but a useful long- keeping dessert variety.

Maxton                       
Assington 1939
Pick early-mid Oct. Use Nov – Jan
Pollination group C
A more highly coloured sport of the Bedfordshire apple Laxton’s Superb with the added advantage of non-biennial cropping. Discovered in 1939 in an orchard at Assington. Sent to National Fruit Trials in 1961 and later in the 1960s to Holland, where it was known as Suffolk Superb. Sweet, finely textured, quite juicy flesh and more highly coloured than Laxton’s Superb.  It has good canker and mildew resistance. It is partially self-fertile so will set some fruit by itself. Having another same or different apple variety with the same or adjacent pollination group nearby will help cropping.

Red Miller’s Seedling
Sudbury pre1948
Pick late Aug. Use Aug – Sept
Pollination group C
A red sport of the Berkshire apple Miller’s Seedling, which arose in the garden of Mr. Wheldon, of Sudbury, sometime before 1948. A small conical fruit that is easily bruised, with crisp, very juicy sweet flesh. It is partially self-fertile so will set some fruit by itself. Having another same or different apple variety with the same or adjacent pollination group nearby will help cropping.

St Edmund’s Russet               
Bury St. Edmunds pre1875
Pick mid Sept. Use Sept – Oct
Pollination group C
Raised by Mr Richard Harvey of Bury St Edmunds. A sweet, juicy and rich russet, which when fully ripe has an almost pear like quality. It has good resistance to scab, canker and mildew. Its synonym is St. Edmund’s Pippin

Apples  –  dual purpose varieties

Lady Henniker                        
Thornham Magna c.1845
Pick early Oct. Use Nov – Jan
Pollination group D
Raised from a seedling, between 1840-50, having been found in discarded cider must at the Henniker family home at Thornham Magna Hall, near Eye. In 1873 it was introduced commercially by their head gardener Mr. Perkins and in 1875 was awarded an RHS First Class Certificate. It became a popular UK garden variety. Can be distinctively oblong and ‘slab-sided’ in shape and large. Cooks to a pale yellow quite strongly flavoured puree, hardly needing extra sugar. It is a triploid variety so requires another two different apple varieties nearby for successful pollination.

Apples  –  culinary varieties

Lord Stradbroke                     
Henham 1900
Pick early Oct. Use Oct – Dec/Feb
Pollination group C
Found, or raised, by Lord Stradbroke’s head gardener Mr Fenn, at Henham Hall near Wangford, in about 1900. Received an RHS Award of Merit in 1905. Synonyms include Fenn’s Wonder and Fenn’s Seedling. It is large and maroon in colour, prominently ribbed and five-crowned around the eye. It bruises easily but will keep if stored carefully. A sweet light cooker in October.

Old Blake                               
Lound pre1900
Pick mid Oct. Use Oct – Feb/Mar
Pollination group D
A late-keeping yellowish green skinned cooking apple which is still found growing in gardens around Blundeston and Hopton near Lowestoft. It is believed to have arisen in the garden of the Lound blacksmiths run by the Blake family sometime in the 1800s. Its flesh turns slightly pink when cooked and has little real acidity.

Apples – cider varieties

Late Gold
Brockford c.2000
Pick late October. Use Nov – Dec
Pollination group D
A full bittersweet traditional cider apple raised by Alan Rowe by crossing the cider apples Yarlington Mill and Medaille d’Or.  A medium sized, yellowish-green skinned and heavy cropping late maturing apple. Shows good scab resistance.

Pears – culinary varieties

Winter Orange
First recorded c.1900      
Pick mid/late Oct. Use Dec-Jan/Mar
Pollination group C
Listed by Notcutts Nursery, near Ipswich, in the early 1900s as Notcutt’s Late Orange.  Parentage unknown.  A useful late keeping pear. Needing no extra sugar when cooked. Medium to large in size with a greenish skin turning golden in colour with an orange flush.

Plums and Gages – dessert varieties

Coe’s Golden Drop
First recorded before 1800     
Pick late Sept. Use Sept – Oct
Pollination group D
Raised by Bury St. Edmunds nurseryman Jervaise Coe in the late 1700s. It probably arose from a cross between a Green Gage and the plum White Magnum Bonum. It is a large amber coloured fruit distinctively spotted with red flecks. A useful late-ripening plum which is also a heavy cropper and very sweet and juicy.

Green Gage
Hengrave 1700s
Pick late Aug. Use Aug – Sept
Pollination group C
In the eighteenth-century Thomas Gage of Hengrave Hall, near Bury St.Edmunds, received a shipment of fruit from France that included the gage Reine-Claude (which probably originally came from Armenia). His gardener forgot its proper name so renamed it ‘Green Gage’ after Thomas. Fruits can be large but not usually heavy cropping. Soft fleshed and juicy.

Plums – culinary varieties

Coe’s Late Red
Bury St. Edmunds c.1800
Pick late Sept. Use Sept – Oct
Pollination group B
Introduced by nurseryman Jervaise Coe at Bury St. Edmunds around 1800. Its parentage is unknown. Sometimes called St. Martin and it may have originated in France where a ‘Late Red’ plum was known in the late 1700s. It is small, deep red in colour and has a white chalky bloom on its skin.

Cherries – dessert varieties

Polstead Black Mazzard
Polstead pre1815
Pick late July. Use July – Aug
Pollination group B
A small black-skinned sweet cherry local to the village of Polstead near Hadleigh. Listed in the 1815 catalogue of George Lindley, Norwich nurseryman, and as being sold on Sudbury market in the 1940s, it has distinctively sweet, juicy deep coloured red-flesh.