Golden Delicious apple trees

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• Picking season: Late
• Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
• Flowering group: 4
• Awards: RHS AGM (former) 1993

Golden Delicious has a very poor reputation in the UK, a legacy of the time when large quantities of bland under-ripe bright green French-grown Golden Delicious apples dominated supermarket shelves. However, Golden Delicious is a very different proposition when home-grown in good conditions - a handsomely-shaped apple with a golden-green skin, crisp juicy flesh, and a rich sweet flavour, reminscent of raw cane sugar. If you like crisp sweet apples then it is hard to beat a home-grown Golden Delicious, picked late in the autumn when it is properly ripe.

Home-grown Golden Delicious apples still retain the advantages of commercially grown examples - they are versatile for eating fresh or using in the kitchen, and of course they are one of the best apples for long-term storage, retaining flavour and crispness for several months in a cold shed or in the fridge.

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Golden Delicious apple trees for sale

Pot-grown

All our pot-grown trees are grown for us to our specification by the Frank P Matthews nursery.

All pot-grown trees are suitable for planting out in the garden, some are suitable for growing in containers.

• PG12-year bush-trained 12L pot-grown tree, M26 rootstock£57.50
  Grown for us by Frank P Matthews nursery
  Medium tree (2m-3m after 10 years)
  

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• PG22-year bush-trained 12L pot-grown tree, MM106 rootstock£57.50
  Grown for us by Frank P Matthews nursery
  Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)
  

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Bare-root

• BR11-year bare-root tree,M9 rootstock£38.25
  Small tree (1.5m-2.5m after 10 years)
  

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• BR22-year bush-trained bare-root tree,M9 rootstock£44.75
  Small tree (1.5m-2.5m after 10 years)
  

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• BR3Spindlebush bare-root tree,M9 rootstock£44.00
  Small tree (1.5m-2.5m after 10 years)
  

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• BR41-year bare-root tree,M26 rootstock£34.95
  Medium tree (2m-3m after 10 years)
  

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• BR52-year bush-trained bare-root tree,M26 rootstock£43.00
  Medium tree (2m-3m after 10 years)
  

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• BR61-year bare-root tree,MM106 rootstock£34.95
  Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)
  

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• BR72-year bush-trained bare-root tree,MM106 rootstock£43.00
  Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)
  

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• BR82-year half-standard bare-root tree,MM106 rootstock£46.50
  Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)
  

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Need help? Ask our fruit tree experts

Call us on 01759 392007 or fill in our contact form.

Tree specification

Photos of trees as supplied | Tree sizes and forms

Pre-ordering

Pre-order now for delivery in September 2025

Delivery charges

Delivery for a single tree starts at £9.95, it is calculated based on your postcode.

Growing and Training

Golden Delicious is easy to grow, and very productive. In the UK it does best in the south and east as it prefers a drier climate, and a warm autumn helps.

It is usually a good pollinator for other apple varieties, particularly traditional English varieties such as Cox, because it flowers over a long period, producing a lot of pollen, and is is not closely related to them.

History

Golden Delicious is not a French apple, as many people assume - it was discovered in West Virginia, USA, in the 1890s. Golden Delicious is almost certainly a seedling of an old American variety called Grimes Golden.

The original tree survived until the 1950s, by which time Golden Delicious was firmly established as one of the most widely-planted of all apples.

British-grown trees

Unlike many garden centres and online retailers, the vast majority of our fruit trees are grown in the UK. Find out more.

In addition, all our trees are certified under the Plant Healthy scheme, supervised by the Plant Health Alliance. Other stakeholders include Defra and the RHS. The scheme aims to improve UK biosecurity by setting standards for all growers and retailers involved in selling plants in the UK. Find out more.

Guaranteed fruit trees

When you buy your fruit tree from Orange Pippin Fruit Trees we guarantee it for the first season in your garden while it gets established. If it doesn't grow successfully, we'll either replace it the following season or offer a refund, subject to some conditions. Find out more.

More about apple trees

Towards the end of September and into October we see late-season apple varieties beginning to ripen. Their longer ripening period typically means these varieties have the most interesting flavours.

Unlike mid and early season apples which are generally best eaten straight from the tree, many late-season varieties need to be stored in a fridge for a few weeks to mature before their flavours are at their peak. So if you want to be able to eat home-grown apples through the winter then late-season varieties are your best choice.

Some of the most famous English apple varieties fall into this category - including the classic Adams Pearmain, and the ancient Ashmead's Kernel with its peardrop flavours. We also find popular modern varieties such as Spartan, Red Falstaff, Fiesta, and Kidd's Orange Red all coming to perfection at this time of year.