The Importance of Heritage Fruit Trees

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In an old plant catalogue there are listed many apple and other fruit trees that have become lost to
cultivation. The tragedy of this is that some of these cultivars have become discarded for reasons of
commercial profit and the fact that their shelf life is short is also another excuse for not growing
them. One wonders therefore at the reasoning for keeping apples harvested in March in cool storage
so that they can be bought in the following February!
As an avid plant collector I have small orchard of heritage fruit trees. There are apples with histories
traced back to Roman times and medieval times. My personal preference is for the russetted apple
and through conscientious propagators I have been able to source them. I have 60 apples, 10 plums,
6 pears and 5 quinces. All are fruits from days gone by. Exotic names like Andre Sauvage, Fenouillet
Gris, Geeveston Fanny, Saint Edmunds Pippin will never be found on supermarket shelves. I like
being different, and growing your own unique fruit provides so many rewards. Some of these apples
are smaller but the flavour is unsurpassable.
Apparently the jazz apple was bred in NZ with parents Splendour, Braeburn and Gala. The jazz
apple trees being grown in Australia have so many patents and restrictions that Bob Magnus in
Tasmania refers to it as the lawyers apple.
We were burnt out in the 2009 Victorian bushfires and I had to set about with re-establishing the
garden. This time I chose to plant dwarf heritage apples as space meant that I could squeeze in
more. I am able to plant the trees about 2 metres apart and as they grow to about 2-3 metres high.
Pruning will be to tidy up and maintain their shape. This means fruit is reachable and is much less
fiddly than espaliering which is what I had done before the fires. I have also been able to use step
over trees. These will grow to about 30cms to 50 cms and in France they are used as barriers
between vegetable beds. Also using crab apples as pollinators ensures the use of heritage plants
thereby preserving them for the next generation.
My variety of fruit trees means that I should have
fruit from early January through to August. I know
that as caretaker of these unique plants I can
maintain and conserve the heritage. It also means
that I am empowered in growing my own.
These are the growers I source my stocks from:
1. Woodbridge Fruit Trees in Tasmania. They have their catalogue on line in mid April and
package and ship to the mainland. My parcels have been well packaged and the quality is excellent.
They also have heritage dwarf Pears, Quinces, Cherries and Crabs. As well they have the stepover
crab and apple trees. The cultivation notes are also a great resource.
2. Strzelecki Heritage Apples provide a very long list of heritage apples as well as a large range of
pears, plums, crabapples and quince. They can be contacted on 5659 5242. They will also do
grafting for specific types at a small cost.
3. Yalca Fruit Trees is online and they have a wide variety of fruit trees besides apple figs,
persimmons, plums and apricots which are dwarf stock.
Going on line and looking up Heritage Fruit Trees provides other growers. One other nursery that I
have received dwarf Mulberry trees from is Daleys Fruit Trees in NSW.
So if space is an issue and you want to grow more with more choice, having dwarf fruit trees is a
good way to go. I think it is a much better suggestion than to plant more than one apple in the one
hole as I have seen suggested on some gardening programs.
Thankyou to Strzelecki Heritage Apples for providing the beautiful pictures.
Regards Alex Pottage
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