This tree is large, vigorous, and very hardy. It is upright-spreading in habit, and it is susceptible to fireblight and scab. Bloom is late and care should be taken when choosing a pollenizer. As an heirloom, this tree will have biennial tendencies.

The apples are large, sometimes very large. The thin green skin tends to be waxy and can ripen to a lovely translucent yellow with a fine pink blush and russeting around the stem. The flesh is greenish-white and coarse. It has an unfortunate cottony texture to it, and it tends to corkiness within the core line when it does not enjoy a long enough growing season. Traditionally this apple has been used mainly for baking. Of it Rowan Jacobsen in Apples of Uncommon Character writes: "Worth a taste if only to remind yourself that preindustrial homesteaders endured crappy apples too." But in 1893, the apple won First Prize at the Chicago World's Fair, and in the Annual Report of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society of 1910, it is noted that Northwest Greening is consistently found to be one of the five best apples in the state, though its merits arre rigorously debated by the various panel members. De gustibus non disputandum est.

This apple is supposed to be either a seedling or a cross of Golden Russet and Alexander.