Holland Pippin
Apple
USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection
Holland Pippin
Origin / History
Origin unknown (Beach; Hedrick). An old variety, long in cultivation in New York and adjoining states (Beach). Hedrick says it had been grown in America over a century, its culture extending from the Atlantic westward to Michigan and Indiana. Downing (1900) holds that it and the Fall Pippin are "indeed of the same origin."
Coxe, in 1817, described it under the heading "Fall, or Holland Pippin," calling it "one of the finest, and most beautiful apples of the season." He thought it appeared to be the same as Prince's large Pippin of New York. He recorded that it was called Vanduyn's Pippin in parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and the summer Pippin in Morris County. He also recorded that many attending the Philadelphia market erroneously called it the Golden Pippin, which he describes as a very small apple imported from England.
Long confounded with the Fall Pippin, which it resembles in the growth of the tree and in the size and shape of the fruit (Downing, 1848, quoted by Beach). Elliott, Downing, Thomas, Warder, Beach, and Hedrick treat the two as distinct; Downing (1848) calls it "a totally distinct apple" and Thomas calls it "wholly distinct." Downing (1900) finds "one of the strongest points of difference" in their time of ripening.
Downing (1848) contrasts the two in quality. He calls the Fall Pippin "one of the best autumn table apples (at least in this district)," while the Holland Pippin "is of very inferior quality for dessert." Hedrick likewise calls Holland Pippin a culinary fruit and Fall Pippin "a choice dessert apple."
Warder notes "a strange confusion existing in some of the books" associating the two. He describes the Holland Pippin as grown in Western New York, and through the West as derived from that state, as "entirely different" and "extensively known," belonging to a different class from the Fall Pippin.
Hedrick adds that it is also confused with Holland Winter, the latter being a winter apple and Holland Pippin a fall apple. Beach records two varieties cultivated in New York under the name Holland Pippin. One is a winter apple in season from late autumn to April or May, which he treats under the name Holland Winter; the other is the present autumn variety.
Warder found it not seen in the southern counties of the states north of the Ohio River. By 1905 it was still listed by nurserymen but not being planted to any considerable extent. It was then grown to a limited extent for market and was more valued for that purpose in certain portions of the Hudson Valley than in other sections of New York (Beach).
Tree
Tree large or moderately large, vigorous, a good grower, spreading or roundish to round-topped. Coxe found it very vigorous, handsome and spreading, with uncommonly large shoots and leaves. Its growth resembles that of the Fall Pippin (Elliott; Downing, 1848). Hedrick calls the trees of the two "much the same in habit and both … exceptionally satisfactory."
Twigs medium to long, curved, stout; internodes medium. Bark dark brown, heavily coated with gray scarf-skin; pubescent. Lenticels scattering, small to medium, oval, not raised. Buds medium size, plump, obtuse, free, pubescent (Beach).
Hardy or nearly so, healthy, pretty long-lived (Beach). Bears regularly and well (Downing, 1848). Beach calls it generally quite productive, yielding moderate to heavy crops biennially or sometimes annually.
Fruit
Size: Large to very large, the fruit pretty uniform in size and shape. Beach gives it as usually large or very large, sometimes medium. Coxe says it generally weighs a pound.
Form: Roundish, flattened at the ends (Thomas) or often decidedly flattened at the end (Beach), varying to oblate, rather oblate, or oblate conic. Warder calls it regular and conic; Beach gives it as obscurely ribbed.
The authors conflict on its proportions. Thomas calls it somewhat oblong though sometimes slightly oblate, and Coxe calls it "rather long than flat," while Lowther's table gives it as flat. Coxe describes it as very deeply indented at both ends.
Against the Fall Pippin, Downing (1900) finds it a little more square in outline and not so much flattened, though a good deal like it, and a little narrowed next the eye. Elliott finds it more regularly round.
Stem: Short to medium, usually short, thick (Downing) or usually rather slender (Beach), set in a wide cavity. Downing (1900) gives it as half an inch long and deeply sunk. Thomas calls it variable in length. Warder alone gives it as medium to long.
Elliott finds it shorter than in Fall Pippin. In the Fall Pippin the stalk is large (Downing, 1848) or long (Hedrick) and set in a narrow cavity, often comparatively shallow (Downing, 1848).
Cavity: Acute or sometimes acuminate, medium in width to wide or broad, moderately shallow to deep. Elliott finds it not as deep as in Fall Pippin, and more broad and open. Usually covered with thick outspreading russet (Beach); Warder calls it regular and brown.
Calyx: Small to medium, closed or partly open; Downing and Warder give it as closed. Elliott finds it smaller than in Fall Pippin. Pubescent, with lobes rather long and acute (Beach). Hedrick describes the calyx tube as wide and broadly conical, with stamens median.
Basin: Rather shallow to moderately deep, narrow to medium in width. Downing finds the calyx moderately sunk, and Elliott finds the basin not as wide as in Fall Pippin. Abrupt to somewhat obtuse, ridged and wrinkled (Beach) or slightly plaited (Downing; Thomas); Warder calls it regular.
Skin: Thin, tough, smooth or nearly smooth, fair. The ground is greenish yellow, pale green, or clear pale greenish yellow, becoming pale yellow or whitish yellow when fully ripe. Warder gives it as dull yellowish green, rarely bronzed. The exposed side is washed with a little dull red or pale brown (Downing), or bears a brownish-red cheek or blush (Thomas; Beach).
It is the greener fruit of the two when compared with Fall Pippin. It is fit for use while the skin is quite green, whereas Fall Pippin is fit only when quite yellow or golden yellow (Downing, 1848; Hedrick). Beach says that when kept free from scab its general appearance is good for a green apple.
Dots: Beach gives them as numerous, large and small, often submerged and greenish, the brownish-red blush conspicuously marked with large, irregular, areolar dots. Downing gives them as few, scattered, large, greenish. Warder calls them minute.
Flesh and flavor: Flesh white to nearly white, yellowish white, or greenish white; Coxe calls it pale yellow. Coarse-grained, breaking or crisp, tender, juicy to very juicy.
Flavor rather acid to quite acid, brisk subacid (Hedrick), of moderate flavor (Thomas). Warder finds it "not rich, not agreeable." Coxe alone found the flesh "sprightly, and finely flavoured."
Quality "good" (Downing, 1900; Lowther), and "good to very good" (Hedrick). Warder rates it "only fair," and Downing (1848) "of very inferior quality for dessert."
Core and seeds: Warder gives the core as medium, regular, closed, meeting the eye. Hedrick gives it as large and abaxile, with cells unsymmetrical and open. Core lines meeting or clasping; carpels broad, narrowing toward base and apex, emarginate, tufted (Hedrick). Seeds numerous, sometimes imperfect (Warder); narrow, acute (Hedrick).
Season
The recorded season runs from August into early winter. The fruit is fit for cooking in August while still green. Downing (1900) says it begins to fall from the tree and is fit for pies about the middle of August, remaining in kitchen use to the first of November. Thomas says it is a good cooking apple some weeks before it ripens.
It ripens earlier than Fall Pippin and goes out of season soon after Fall Pippin begins to ripen in October (Downing, 1848; Beach; Hedrick). Most authors place full ripeness in early and mid-autumn, September and October. Coxe gives it as ripening in October and keeping well as a fall apple. Warder gives October to December at the North.
The crop ripens unevenly: some apples ripen early and are correspondingly short-lived, while others ripen later and keep correspondingly later. Keeping quality varies greatly in different seasons, and in some years the fruit keeps well till late fall or early winter (Beach, citing the 1904 New York Station bulletin of Beach and Clark).
Uses
Chiefly a culinary apple, for pies, tarts, and sauce. Downing (1900) calls it, from the middle of August to the first of November, "one of the very best kitchen apples." Downing (1848) calls it "one of the most valuable summer fruits we know" for the kitchen, but "only a cooking apple." Thomas calls it "an excellent culinary sort," and Warder gives it for cooking only. Elliott esteems it for cooking but thinks it surpassed by Gravenstein. Coxe alone gives it for both eating and cooking.
Coxe found it "a very popular apple for market," and Lowther lists it for both kitchen and market. Beach records it grown only to a limited extent for market.
Subtypes / Variants
Not described in source.
Other
In Lowther's table of regional ratings it is scored 3 in the Northern Division, 4 in the Central Division, and 2 in the Southern Division, each marked as reported in more than one division.
Book Sources
Described in 8 period pomological works
- Warder, American Pomology: Apples (1867)
- Beach, The Apples of New York Vol. 2 (1905)
- Coxe, A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees (1817) — listed as Fall, Or Holland Pippin
- Downing, Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)
- Elliott, The Western Fruit Book (1865)
- Lowther (ed.), Encyclopedia of Practical Horticulture (1914)
- Hedrick, Cyclopedia of Hardy Fruits (1922)
- Thomas, The American Fruit Culturist (1903)
Nursery Catalog Sources
Found in 6 catalogs (1864–1913) from Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon
- St. Helena Nursery , Howell Prairie, Marion County, OR (Marion Co., Ogn.) — 1864
- Rogers Nursery Co. , Moorestown , New Jersey — 1893
- Woodburn Nurseries , Woodburn, Marion Co. , Oregon — 1894
- Brown Brothers Co. , Continental Nurseries, Rochester, NY (also operated from Toronto, Canada) — 1899
- Benjamin Buckman (personal inventory) , Farmingdale , Illinois — 1901
- Benjamin Buckman (personal inventory) , Farmingdale , Illinois — 1913
View original book sources (8)
— William Coxe, A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees (1817)NO. 15. FALL, OR HOLLAND PIPPIN.
This is one of the finest, and most beautiful apples of the season—the size is very large, it generally weighs a pound; the form is rather long than flat, the skin smooth and fair—of a clear, pale greenish yellow; the flesh pale yellow, juicy, tender, sprightly, and finely flavoured: it is a very popular apple for market, and is used both for eating and cooking: the stalk is short, it is very deeply indented at both ends; it ripens in October, and keeps well as a fall apple—the tree grows very vigorously, handsome and spreading, with uncommonly large shoots and leaves.—it appears to be the same with Princes large Pippin of New-York; is called Vanduyns Pippin in some parts of Pennsylvania and New-Jersey; in Morris county, the summer Pippin; and by many who attend the Philadelphia market, is erroneously called the Golden Pippin, (which is a very small apple imported from England. see No. 64.)
[Additional entry in this volume: "Holland Pippin", pp. 125–125]
No. 15. Holland Pippin.
— F.R. Elliott, The Western Fruit Book (1865)Holland Pippin. Reinette d'Holland, Summer Pippin, Pie Apple, French Pippin, of some.
Tree, resembles Fall Pippin, with which it is often confounded, but from which it is distinct. It is esteemed for cooking, for which it is fitted in August, but we think surpassed by Gravenstein. We refer for description to Fall Pippin, with this difference, more regular round, stem shorter, cavity not as deep, more broad and open; calyx smaller, and basin not as wide.
— John A. Warder, American Pomology: Apples (1867)Holland Pippin.
There is a strange confusion existing in some of the books, by which this fruit has been associated with the Fall Pippin. The Holland, as grown in Western New York, and through the West, as derived from the former State, is entirely different; and as that is extensively known, its description is here given, that it may be compared with the other, which belongs to a different class.
Fruit large, regular, conic, rather oblate; Surface dull yellowish-green, rarely bronzed; Dots minute.
Basin narrow, medium depth, regular; Eye medium, closed.
Cavity medium, acute, regular, brown; Stem medium to long.
Core medium, regular, closed, meeting the eye; Seeds numerous, sometimes imperfect; Flesh yellowish-white or greenish-white, breaking, coarse-grained, juicy; Flavor quite acid, not rich, not agreeable; Quality only fair; Use cooking only; Season, October to December at the North.
Not seen in the southern counties of the States north of the Ohio River.
— A.J. Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)Holland Pippin.
Reinette d'Hollande. Summer Pippin. Pie Apple.
This and the Fall Pippin are frequently confounded together. They are indeed of the same origin. One of the strongest points of difference lies in their time of ripening.
The Holland Pippin begins to fall from the tree and is fit for pies about the middle of August, and from that time to the first of November is one of the very best kitchen apples.
Fruit very large, roundish, a little more square in outline than the Fall Pippin, and not so much flattened, though a good deal like it, a little narrowed next the eye. Stalk half an inch long, thick, deeply sunk. Calyx small, closed, moderately sunk in a slight plaited basin. Skin greenish yellow or pale green, becoming pale yellow when fully ripe, washed on one side with a little dull red or pale brown, with a few scattered, large, greenish dots. Good.
— John J. Thomas, The American Fruit Culturist (1903)Holland Pippin. Very large, roundish, somewhat oblong, and flattened at the ends, sometimes slightly oblate; greenish yellow, becoming pale yellow or whitish yellow, with a brownish red cheek; stalk variable in length, usually short; cavity wide, acute; basin slightly plaited; flesh nearly white, rather acid, with a moderate flavor. Ripens early and mid-autumn, but is a good cooking apple some weeks previously. Wholly distinct from the Fall Pippin. An excellent culinary sort.
— S.A. Beach, The Apples of New York, Vol. 2 (1905)HOLLAND PIPPIN.
References. 1. Coxe, 1817:109. fig. 2. Downing, 1845:86. 3. Ib., Horticulturist, 3:345. 1848. 4. Thomas, 1849:156. fig. 5. Cole, 1849:110. 6. Downing, Chas., Horticulturist, 8:196. 1853. 7. Elliott, 1854:138. 8. Hovey, Mag. Hort., 22:555. 1856. fig. 9. Hooper, 1857:45. 10. Gregg, 1857:37. 11. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat., 1862. 12. Warder, 1867:506. 13. Wickson, 1889:244. 14. Lyon, Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1890:292. 15. Bailey, An. Hort., 1892:241. 16. Beach and Clark, N. Y. Sta. Bul., 248:124. 1904.
Synonyms. Fall Pippin (1). French Pippin (7). Holland Pippin (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). Pie Apple (2, 7, 8). Reinette d'Hollande (2). Reinette d'Holland (7). Summer Pippin (2, 7, 8).
There are two varieties in cultivation in New York under the name Holland Pippin. One is a winter apple in season from late autumn to April or May which has already been described under the name Holland Winter, Vol. I., page 159. The other begins to ripen earlier than Fall Pippin and is in season during September and October. This variety was formerly confused by some with the Fall Pippin. The following comparison of the two varieties was given by Downing in 1848 (3). "The Holland Pippin, though considerably resembling this apple in the growth of the tree, and size and shape of the fruit, is a totally distinct apple from the Fall Pippin. In fact, while the Fall Pippin is one of the best autumn table apples (at least in this district), the Holland Pippin is of very inferior quality for dessert, and is, in fact, only a cooking apple. As a kitchen fruit, however, it is one of the most valuable summer fruits we know — for it bears regularly and well, comes into use at the beginning of August, and continues fit for pies, tarts, and sauce, until October, when the Fall Pippin begins to ripen. The Holland Pippin is fit for use while the skin is quite green, but the Fall Pippin, not until it turns quite yellow. Finally, the stalk of the Holland Pippin is short, and set in a wide cavity, while that of the Fall Pippin is large, and set in a cavity often narrow, and comparatively shallow. With these points of difference, these two apples ought not to be confounded."
Holland Pippin is grown to a limited extent for market. It appears to be more valued for this purpose in certain portions of the Hudson valley than in other sections of the state. The fruit is large and when kept free from scab its general appearance is good for a green apple. The crop ripens unevenly. Some of the apples ripen early and are correspondingly short-lived while others ripen later and keep correspondingly later. It varies greatly in keeping qualities in different seasons, some years keeping well till late fall or early winter (16). The tree is a good grower, hardy or nearly so, healthy, pretty long-lived and generally quite productive yielding moderate to heavy crops biennially or sometimes annually.
Historical. Origin unknown. It is an old variety which has long been in cultivation in this and adjoining states. It is still listed by nurserymen but it is not being planted to any considerable extent.
Tree.
Tree large or moderately large, vigorous. Form spreading or roundish. Twigs medium to long, curved, stout; internodes medium. Bark dark brown, heavily coated with gray scarf-skin; pubescent. Lenticels scattering, small to medium, oval, not raised. Buds medium size, plump, obtuse, free, pubescent.
Fruit.
Fruit usually large or very large, sometimes medium, pretty uniform in size and shape. Form roundish often decidedly flattened at the end varying to oblate conic, obscurely ribbed. Stem medium to short, usually rather slender. Cavity acute or sometimes acuminate, medium in width to broad, moderately shallow to deep, usually covered with thick outspreading russet. Calyx pubescent, medium to small, closed or partly open; lobes rather long, acute. Basin usually rather shallow but varying to moderately deep, medium in width to rather narrow, abrupt to somewhat obtuse, ridged and wrinkled. Skin thin, tough, nearly smooth, rather pale yellow or greenish with more or less of a brownish-red blush which is conspicuously marked with large, irregular, areolar dots. Dots numerous, large and small, often submerged and greenish.
— Granville Lowther (ed.), Encyclopedia of Practical Horticulture (1914)Holland Pippin. Size: large. Form: flat. Color: greenish yellow. Quality: good. Use: both kitchen and market. Season: early autumn. N. Div.: 3 (reported in more than one division). C. Div.: 4 (reported in more than one division). S. Div.: 2 (reported in more than one division).
— U.P. Hedrick, Cyclopedia of Hardy Fruits (1922)HOLLAND PIPPIN. French Pippin. Summer Pippin. Holland Pippin is often confused with Holland Winter and Fall Pippin. The following differences distinguish it from these two: Holland Pippin is a fall apple, while Holland Winter is in season in winter. Holland Pippin is a culinary fruit, while Fall Pippin is a choice dessert apple. Of the two, Holland Pippin is the earlier, going out of season soon after Fall Pippin begins to ripen. Holland Pippin is the greener fruit of the two, Fall Pippin being fit to use only when it is a golden yellow in color. The stalk of Holland Pippin is short and set in a wide cavity, while that of Fall Pippin is long and set in a narrow cavity. The trees of both varieties are much the same in habit and both are exceptionally satisfactory. The origin of Holland Pippin is unknown, but it has been grown in America over a century, its culture extending from the Atlantic westward to Michigan and Indiana. Tree large, vigorous, spreading or round-topped. Fruit large or very large, uniform in size and shape, round or oblate-conic, obscurely ribbed ; stem short, usually slender ; cavity acute, medium in width, shallow, usually covered with thick outspreading russet ; calyx pubescent, small, closed or partly open ; lobes long, acute ; basin shallow to deep, narrow, abrupt to obtuse, ridged and wrinkled ; skin thin, tough, smooth, pale yellow with brownish-red blush which is conspicuously marked with large irregular, areolar dots ; dots numerous, large and small, often submerged ; calyx-tube wide, broadly conical ; stamens median ; core large, abaxile ; cells unsymmetrical, open ; core-lines meeting or clasping ; carpels broad, narrowing toward base and apex, emarginate, tufted ; seeds narrow, acute ; flesh white, coarse-grained, crisp, tender, very juicy, brisk subacid ; good to very good ; September to October.