Spring 2021 is here – Apple blossom is out 30th April 2021
Just a few photos of nice and bright fresh flowers from a few unusual varieties.
Apple variety – Grasten Sabygard (above)
Almost pure white flowers that glow in the sun light.
The Gravensteiner (also Grafensteiner , Grafenapfel ; Danish Gråsten æble ) is a variety of the cultivated apple ( Malus domestica ). The variety has been known in Denmark and Northern Germany (South Jutland / North Schleswig, Denmark) since at least 1669.
Mutants
The variety known as Roter Gravensteiner is a “bud mutation”. It was first described in 1873. The blood-red Gravensteiner is even more strongly colored . The red variants are popular in stores, but less flavorful than the yellow-skinned or red-cheeked variants. Other more common mutants are Crimson (Canada, around 1945), Vierlanden (Germany), Sabygard (Hungary), Nordstrand (Germany), Hessen (Hungary), Oratia Beauty (New Zealand), Toggenburg (Switzerland), Zanetti (probably Italy), Rellstab (Switzerland), Roter Schleibnitzer, Red Australian (Australia), Henzens (probably Germany), Roter Wintergravensteiner (Baltic States, from 1920), Ropers and Graasten. There are also numerous mutants that are common in Norway.
Apple variety – Redlove Era (above)
Redlove apples are a series of several cultivars recently bred by Markus Kobelt in Switzerland. They are hybrids from cross-pollination of red-fleshed and scab-resistant plants.
Apple variety – Hungarian 3 (above)
Unknown variety from Hungary
Apple variety – Redfield (above)
A Malus domestica apple and crab apple cross, with deep red flesh.
Developed at the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, USA in the 1930s by crossing the Wolf River apple (Wisonsin USA heirloom variety) with Niedzwetzky’s apple (ancestry from Kyrgyzstan). Used for cooking or cider making ‘bittersweet’.
Apple variety – Purple Passion
Deep red flesh, very acid /sharp but mellows with time to make a nice eating apple