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Mother Apple Scionwood (Spring 2025)


An American heirloom apple of outstanding flavor. Also known as American Mother, Gardener's Apple, Queen Anne.

The tree is upright-spreading to rounded and moderately vigorous. It is slow to bear, but once established, it is hardy and dependable. It is fairly resistant to most major diseases, but somewhat susceptible to fireblight. The fruit should be thinned to maintain quality and annual bearing. Mother is partially self-fertile, but will be more productive if partnered with a pollenizer.

Mother is an outstanding eating apple that ripens mid-September in upstate New York. The fruit is tallish and conical, with a skin colored bright red over yellow-orange. It has a distinctive flavor that is often described as balsamic or piney, but it does needs full sun to be at its best. Tom Burford includes Mother on his list of Top 20 Dessert Apples, and writers as early as Beach (Apples of New York) have compared Mother to Esopus Spitzenburg in terms of quality. This apple never achieved commercial success, mainly because it does not store well, but it is an excellent tree for the apple enthusiast who wants a small specialty orchard.

Mother was first discovered in the garden of General Stephen P. Gardener in Bolton, Wooster County, Massachusetts. In its heyday, Mother was a favorite tree in the south, where it readily ripens to full flavor.

Volume Pricing

Premiums are included in the following prices if applicable. These prices are for regular scion. Add $1 for clean scion.

Quantity Mother Apple Scion
1 $12.00
2-5 $8.00
6-10 $7.00
11-99 $6.00
100+ $5.00

Order Your Scions

Select clean or regular:

$13.00 ea.

This is the full retail price for orders of 1 scion. You can get these scion for as low as $5.00 each – see Volume Pricing above. More about Pricing & Grading.

14 in stock
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Clean vs. Regular

Our clean scion is harvested from trees grown on G.16, which is extremely sensitive to viruses. These trees would not have survived if the scion contained viruses. Our clean wood has not been lab tested. Regular = may contain one of the common latent viruses; this is not usually a problem and can be used with most rootstocks.

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The tree is upright-spreading to rounded and moderately vigorous. It is slow to bear, but once established, it is hardy and dependable. It is fairly resistant to most major diseases, but somewhat susceptible to fireblight. The fruit should be thinned to maintain quality and annual bearing. Mother is partially self-fertile, but will be more productive if partnered with a pollenizer.

Mother is an outstanding eating apple that ripens mid-September in upstate New York. The fruit is tallish and conical, with a skin colored bright red over yellow-orange. It has a distinctive flavor that is often described as balsamic or piney, but it does needs full sun to be at its best. Tom Burford includes Mother on his list of Top 20 Dessert Apples, and writers as early as Beach (Apples of New York) have compared Mother to Esopus Spitzenburg in terms of quality. This apple never achieved commercial success, mainly because it does not store well, but it is an excellent tree for the apple enthusiast who wants a small specialty orchard.

Mother was first discovered in the garden of General Stephen P. Gardener in Bolton, Wooster County, Massachusetts. In its heyday, Mother was a favorite tree in the south, where it readily ripens to full flavor.


The Fruit

Fruit Type

Category: Apple
Subcategory: Heirloom, Disease-Resistant, Hot-Climate

Fruit Uses & Storage

Uses: fresh eating
Storage duration: less than one month (approximate, depending on storage conditions)

Fruit Appearance

Skin color: red
Flesh color: yellow

Fruit Origins

Parentage: unknown
Origin: Bolton, Massachusetts
Introduced in: pre 1811
Introduced by: Stephen P. Gardener

The Environment

Calendar & Geography

USDA zones: 5 - 8
Chill hours: Not yet determined
Ripening date: Sep 15 (approximate, in New York State) + 0 days after McIntosh

Diseases & Pests

Apple Scab: Resistant
Cedar-Apple Rust: Resistant
Fireblight: Susceptible

Pollination

Pollination Factors

Bloom group: 4
Is it self-fertile? Partial
Is it fertile? Y
Ploidy: Diploid

Pollination Partners

This table shows the first few results from a full search for pollenizers of Mother Apple. Please see our Pollenizer Search to run other queries and read how the application uses various factors. Also read more about fruit tree pollination.

Tree Ships Currently in Stock
Cripps Pink Apple 2025 0
Golden Russet Apple 2025 0
Granny Smith Apple 2025 0
Honeycrisp Apple 2025 0
Macoun Apple 2025 0
St. Edmund's Russet Apple 2025 0
Enterprise Apple 2025 0
Newtown Pippin Apple 2025 0
Empire Apple 2025 0
Florina Apple 2025 0
Bramtot Apple 2025 0

See all pollination matches for Mother Apple






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