This collection differs from the Inner Oval Heritage Apples
(Located W2, C8-15 planted 2025) The central feature of our fruit garden, planted more than 30 years ago, is the “inner oval” of large stately fruit trees. These are cultivars that pioneer families planted in Western Washington around 1900 and before. The varieties were brought here from Europe and from the Eastern United States. These varieties were selected because they have proven to thrive in our climate. These are heritage varieties that are still grown and loved in many orchards throughout Europe and North America. You can see these varieties by clicking on #53. Because our garden has grown over the years, in addition to our new local heritage collection and the inner oval collection, there are other heritage apples in our fruit garden. Their locations are noted in their varietal descriptions also available by clicking #53.
Preserving our local Cultivars
Our NW heritage collection is the outstanding Apple varieties that are unique to Washington and Oregon. Many are from Northwest Washington They have proven, over many years, to thrive in our climate. There are a few amazing dedicated apple collectors in our region who are growing and preserving hundreds of these uniquely local varieties. To preserve these varieties into the future so that all fruit enthusiasts can see and taste them, we are collecting some of the best in our public garden. This is not solely a collection of our region’s old time varieties. It includes varieties developed recently in our region and we hope it will include new selections in the future.
This project started in 2025
We will have trees on a very dwarfing rootstock planted only three feet apart. We do this to limit the space the collection will take up and to limit the amount of work it takes to care for them. We are using a modified Laurette pruning system. If there is sufficient volunteer labor and funding we can consider expanding the collection.
The trees will be small and not have much fruit or scionwood for several years. It is important that no one picks the fruit or takes any scionwood from the trees. When these and the other fruit trees in our garden are large enough to have the fruit picked we will make the fruit available at our fall field day. Also, when the trees are large enough to spare any scionwood, we will make it available at our winter field day.
There are so many apple enthusiasts who helped Lori Brakken scout out many old orchards and who helped her compile the varietal information. We will add additional credits as time goes by. Among the people to thank are the people at the Peninsula Fruit Club (link) the Vashon Island Fruit Club (link) and the Temperate Orchard Conservancy link. Also to Marilyn Couture whose great grandparents founded the number 1 nursery in Oregon. She brought us the Multnomah variety and continues to rediscover outstanding old time varieties. Credit also goes to Larry Crum who top worked many of the varieties to start the project and who provided the impetus, along with Lori to do this project.
Limitations on our collection & how you can help!
The space in our fruit garden is limited and many collections occupy the space. Our volunteers are busy taking care of the many collections we already have. Whether more of the heritage apples can be planted here in the future will depend on whether there are additional enthusiasts who volunteer to regularly work in the fruit garden to care for this collection. (Also WSU’s budget is always under threat but the threat is much greater now. Our garden’s future depends on WSU’s future.)
We need and welcome new volunteers. The NW Heritage Collection was started with the cooperation of Lori Brakken, Larry Crum and Sam Benowitz. We recognize that there are many apple enthusiasts in our region that could add their knowledge to this project and we invite them to become involved. Email our membership committee at (link ???) to get on the list of people who want to work on this project. Lori Brakken has spent a lifetime identifying and promoting local apple varieties. What we have noted in each cultivar description is taken from the notes she has compiled while working with other enthusiasts in our region. We know it is far from complete and that it includes some contradictory and incorrect information. What we have is a work in progress that will need to be improved by all of our collective efforts over time.
Using a DNA test for confirmation
Lori Brakken and other knowledgeable collectors have provided us the scionwood from their collections to make these trees. We intend to do DNA leaf samples to confirm the identities of each of the varieties. When we get back results we will post them on this page. Until then we can not guarantee that they are true to name. Lori has used fruit and leaf samples to identify many of the better known varieties. Some, however, are seedlings or varieties of great merit found in only one or a few locations that are called by a local name. Even if a variety’s DNA tests don’t match a recorded variety the tests will usually show which cultivars are the parents of the variety tested. Apple trees and even more so Pear trees, live a long time and some of the trees planted one hundred to one hundred and fifty years ago are still alive. Fruit enthusiasts can join The Olympic Peninsula Fruit Club and other fruit organizations in Western Washington to learn about locating and preserving these old trees.
Each apple’s history is a Detective Story
The story of each of these apple varieties reveals a bit about the history of our area. As you read the description of each variety you will read the story about where each came from.
Native Crabapples
Malus fusca is a crabapple native and unique to the Pacific Northwest. Native Americans harvested the 1⁄2 inch very tart fruit and also used the bark of the tree and managed the native crabapples to encourage their growth and productivity. It was an important part of their diet. The varieties of apples we are familiar with and are in our fruit garden are mostly cross bred varieties of Malus domestica from Eurasia. In the couple hundred years that these imported apple varieties have been growing in the Pacific Northwest, some of the wild seedling trees may be a cross of fusca and domestica. The genes from Malus fusca being the parent of some of our local heritage apples would make them unique to our region. Our DNA testing will tell us. Malus fusca is high in pectin and is rich in polyphenols, specific fatty acids and amino acids which could make these crosses very nutritious. We are including fusca in our collection and maybe able to add interesting crosses in the future.
Immigrants from Around the World
Our region’s peoples include immigrants from throughout the world and from throughout the nation. We also have regional tribal cultures to learn and borrow from. Each has contributed their own culture and fruit to our region. As they garden, they adapt their fruits and vegetables to our local growing conditions. The plants in our fruit garden and our apple collections are here because they were planted here by people who came from around the world and added their bits of culture to make what is now our culture. We welcome, as we learn more, to adding these histories to our evolving narrative.
The Canadian Connection
Part of the story is our connection to Victoria B.C. and Vancouver Island. Right across from the strait of San Juan de Fuca is Victoria and the San Juan Islands. In 1870 and before and up to about 1950 Layritz Nursery and others were selling varieties they got from England. England and Vancouver Island and Northwest Washington state have a similar climate and sure enough, savvy orchardists and homesteaders planted these then state of the art cultivars in their orchard right across on the American side. In 1826 the first apple tree recorded to be planted in the state was at Fort Vancouver, in Vancouver WA. The tree is thought to be from a seed taken from a variety from England. The tree died in 2022 however we got scionwood from it earlier and made trees you will see in the fruit garden.
The Willamette Valley
Meanwhile the Willamette Valley was settled mostly before Western Washington and nurseries including Luelling and others offered varieties from back east and Europe but also developed some of their own cultivars like Orenco and Multnomah. The Hudson’s Golden Gem was a chance seedling found in a fence row in Boring Oregon in 1931.
Western Washington’s Own
Before the 1930’s when the Columbia River dams brought irrigation and the large apple industry to Eastern Washington, there were many commercial orchards on the west side which contributed some new varieties. In about 1915 near Olga on Orcas Island, a red sport of Gravenstein was discovered and nurseries sold this “Red Gravenstein” around the nation. Pacific Pride reportedly came from Mt. Vernon in 1912. Other varieties were developed elsewhere but only became popular in our region. Wynooche Early was a numbered selection from New York that was grown near and named for a river in Southwest Washington. Chehalis was a sport of Golden Delicious found in Oakville in 1937 and with the help of the WSU Puyallup station became popular first locally and then nationwide.
Selections from East of the Mountains
The nurseries and orchardists in Eastern Washington also developed their own new varieties especially since the 1930’s with the irrigation projects. Some of the varieties in our collection were bred in Wenatchee and other parts of Eastern Washington. The favorable climate and WSU’s work at Pullman, Wenatchee and Prosser as well as their other efforts has enabled Washington state to lead the nation in apple production. WSU has bred the Cosmic Crisp apple and is working on introducing other outstanding cultivars. As they are introduced we will add the ones that thrive in our unique Western Washington climate to our fruit garden.
From WSU Mt. Vernon station
While all this was going on the WSU Mt. Vernon station starting in the late 1960’s under the direction of Dr. Robert Norton was testing many hundreds of cultivars from throughout the world. Most of the fruit trees in our fruit garden are the ones proven for our area in variety trials that went on from the 1970’s to about 2010. Most of those varieties did Not originate in Western Washington. However a few that were not well known elsewhere, became favorites here.
Puget Spice is a crabapple bred at the station. After Dr. Norton retired he selected an apple to be called Norton’s Seedling. We are proud to have it in our collection to honor Doc Norton.
The first apple WSU bred and released is Cosmic Crisp which is very popular throughout the nation and world. We also have it growing in our fruit garden and we will try new WSU selections to see how they do here.
Other NW Heritage Trees In other parts of the Fruit Garden
Several apple trees with a special connection to the Pacific Northwest are already in various parts of the fruit garden. Here is a list of them with their connection to our area described and their location in the fruit garden noted.
Descriptions and location of these varieties.
Descriptions of Northwest Heritage Apple Trees that are being grown along the west trellis: (link to variety description pages)
