The tree is moderately vigorous, spreading, and precocious. From the scab-resistant breeding program of Purdue, Rutgers, and Illinois Universities, Scarlett O'Hara is one of the highest quality and most productive varieties. It is susceptible to fireblight, but resistant to powdery mildew and cedar apple rust, and field immune to scab. Fruit should be thinned for best quality and to avoid biennialism.

Ripening mid-late September, the apple is round-conic, fully blushed red (as the name suggests), sweet and juicy. It hangs extremely well on the tree and sugars increase greatly until early October. The fruit is mild and slightly bland at harvest, but the flavor improves with one-two months storage. It will store well for up to seven months. Tasters find notes of citrus, banana, caramel, and rose.

Duane Greene from the University of Massachusetts writes: "It can be picked, and actually tastes very similar when harvested over a 4-week period from late September to late October. It is one of the crispest and best storing apples I evaluated. It stores better than Fuji or Braeburn but not quite as well as Honeycrisp. It has a mild, fruity, vanilla flavor with a good sugar to acid ratio. I would plant this even if it were not a scab-resistant apple. Anyone who is looking for a versatile scab-resistant apple should be looking at this."