Puget Spice
(Located E2, S3, Planted 2025) A cross of Prima and Alkmene selected from crosses made by Dr. Robert Norton, Gary Moulton and Jacky King at WSU Mt. Vernon station. They weren’t trying to make a crab apple but the result was too good to ignore. It has a beautiful upright shape, is scab immune, covered with fragrant white blossoms and incredibly productive. It’s covered by small one inch tart fruit great for making jelly, pickled fruit or blending in cider.
Hewes Virginia Crab
(Located E2, S3, Planted 2015) George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s favorite cider apple. It is very productive, small flattened bittersweet dull red apple ripe in September. It makes a clear, dry cinnamon flavored cider.
Evereste
(Located W5, C24, Planted 2020) Each spring this highly scab resistant tree from France is covered from its base to its summit with fragrant long lasting white flowers. In summer the tree is covered with round red bittersharp one inch apples great for jellies, pickles or cider. The fruit hangs on until winter and can be used in the fall and is so thick it makes beautiful fall garlands.
Centennial
(Located E2, S3, Planted 2025) A naturally dwarfed, scab resistant tree easily kept at 6-8 feet tall and wide. It produces a huge crop of 1 inch oval sweet delicious yellow fruit with an orange blush that ripens in mid-August. A perfect size for a child’s lunchbox. Red flower buds open to a creamy white. From Minnesota and named for its Centennial.
Malus Fusca Native Crab Apple
(Located in Crab Apple & Malus Fusca block.) Native Americans have long used the Pacific Northwest native crab apple Malus fusca. It is especially tolerant of wet soil and even swamps and thrives in wet areas where apples won’t otherwise grow. Trees can grow to 15 feet or more and produce very small and tart fruit.
Native peoples in the Pacific Northwest cultivated clusters of Malus fusca apple trees and used the trees and small fruit as important staples.
We are using it as a rootstock and it is compatible with apple cultivars and also, unlike other apple rootstocks, also compatible with pears. Pears are growing a lot more slowly on it then are apples. We have also grafted a Bud 9 interstem on the Malus fusca to make a dwarf interstem tree suited for wet sites. Currently we have Akane, Liberty and Ashmead’s Kernel apples and Orcas pears grafted on Malus fusca rootstock.
Using the native crab apple as a rootstock to grow apples on wet sites is a practice being used in wet lands in western Washington to extend the areas where apples can be successfully grown. In our collection of NW Heritage apples we have included Malus fusca and will be looking for especially large fruited and productive plants. We are also looking for possible crosses of Malus fusca with the Eurasian sourced apples that are the parents of most of the apples in our fruit garden.
