Rosemary Russet apple trees

• Check pollinators >

• Picking season: Late
• Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
• Flowering group: 3
• Awards: RHS AGM (current) 1993

A classic English russet apple with excellent flavours, but not as well known as its Victorian contemporaries.

Rosemary Russet apple trees for sale

Rosemary Russet is highly-regarded classic English dessert apple.

Although considered a "russet", the extent of russeting is usually quite limited, and the skin is predominantly a pale green largely covered with an attractive orange flush.

The cream-coloured flesh is firm rather than crisp, with a well-balanced sharp-sweet flavour.

How to grow

Rosemary Russet is easy to grow and generally problem-free. It is heavy-cropping but left un-checked it tends to produce very small apples, so this is a variety that repays active thinning of the fruitlets in May, to increase the size of the remaining ones.

Advice on fruit tree pollination.

History

Rosemary Russet was first mentioned in 1831 by a nursery in Middlesex, however it is certainly somewhat older than this. DNA testing in 2022 by Reading University established that Rosemary Russet was a parent of Cox's Orange Pippin - in hindsight the similarities are quite obvious.

Rosemary Russet characteristics