Blenheim Orange

Blenheim Orange

Origin/History

First discovered at Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, and received its name from Blenheim, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough, which is in the immediate neighbourhood. The exact date of origin is not known. It is not noticed in any of the nursery catalogues of the last century, nor was it cultivated in the London nurseries until about the year 1818.

The following account appeared in the Gardener's Chronicle: "In a somewhat dilapidated corner of the decaying borough of ancient Woodstock, within ten yards of the wall of Blenheim Park stands all that remains of the original stump of that beautiful and justly celebrated apple, the Blenheim Orange. It is now entirely dead and rapidly falling to decay, being a mere shell about ten feet high, loose in the ground, and having a large hole in the centre; till within the last three years, it occasionally sent up long, thin, wiry twigs, but this last sign of vitality has ceased, and what remains will soon be the portion of the wood-louse and the worm. Old Grimmett, the basket maker, against the corner of whose garden wall the venerable relic is supported, has sat looking on it from his workshop window, and while he wove the pliant osier, has meditated for more than fifty successive summers on the mutability of all sublunary substances; on juice, and core, and vegetable as well as animal, and flesh, and blood. He can remember the time when fifty years ago he was a boy, and the tree a fine full bearing stem, full of bud and blossom and fruit, and thousands thronged from all parts to gaze on its ruddy ripening orange burden: then gardeners came in the spring time to collect the much coveted scions, and to hear the tale of his horticultural child and sapling, from the lips of the son of the whitehaired Kempster. But nearly a century has elapsed since Kempster fell like a ripened fruit and was gathered to his fathers. He lived in a narrow cottage garden in Old Woodstock, a plain, practical, labouring man; and in the midst of his bees and flowers around him, and in his 'glorious pride' in the midst of his little garden, he realised Virgil's dream of the old Corycian: 'et regum equabat opes animis.'" The provincial name for the apple is still "Kempster's Pippin," a lasting monumental tribute and inscription to him who first planted the kernel from whence it sprung.

Tree

Has a strong and vigorous habit of growth and forms a large and very beautiful standard. This is the best and most profitable form of its growth, and when it becomes full-grown it usually bears regular and abundant crops; it is however apt, even then, to bear well only on alternate years. As a dwarf or an espalier it does not bear so regularly, or so well. (Bunyard, by contrast, notes it is commonly grown as trained trees, and that it is a valuable variety for cold districts owing to its late flowering — a characterization in tension with the Herefordshire Pomona's preference for the standard form.)

Flowers are pink and late coming, which makes it a valuable variety for cold districts (Bunyard).

Fruit

Size: Large, being generally three inches wide and two and a half inches high.

Form: Globular and somewhat flattened, broader at the base than the apex, regularly and handsomely shaped.

Stem: Short and stout, rather deeply inserted, and scarcely extending beyond the base.

Cavity: Not separately described; stem described as rather deeply inserted.

Calyx: Eye large and open, with short stunted segments.

Basin: Round, broad, and rather deep.

Skin: Yellow, with a tinge of dull red next the sun, and streaked with deeper red.

Flesh/Flavor: Yellow, crisp, juicy, sweet and pleasantly acid. Bunyard describes the flesh as rich, with an excellent flavour.

Core/Seeds: Cells of the core open or closed; cell-walls roundish obovate. Tube funnel-shaped; stamens medium.

Season

In season from November to February.

Uses

The Herefordshire Pomona regards it as a very valuable and highly esteemed apple either for dessert or culinary purposes, but strictly speaking more suitable for the kitchen than the parlour, except for its very handsome appearance in size, shape, and colour. Bunyard classifies it as a dessert apple of the highest merits. The two sources thus disagree on primary use: Herefordshire Pomona favours culinary, Bunyard favours dessert.

Subtypes/Variants

Not described in source.

Other

The Herefordshire Pomona plate represents not only the fruit when fit to gather from the tree, with the leaves and blossom, but also shows the rich ripe tints it assumes when it takes the place of honour on the Christmas dinner table.