The tree is hardy, fireblight resistant, and moderately vigorous. It is slow to produce and tends to biennialism.

Blue Pearmain is beautiful and distinctly colored. In Rowan Jacobsen's Apples of Uncommon Character he describes this apple's appearance as "mottled with pink, green, yellow, orange, taupe, auburn, carmine and black, all airbrushed with loveliest powdery blue bloom." With a flavor that is mildly acidic, sweet, and rich, the flesh is firm, rather coarse, and aromatic. Blue Pearmain ripens in late October in upstate New York. It develops full flavor in storage and is best to eat between November and February. This keeper dries and shrivels in storage, yet retains good flavor.

Blue Pearmain is an heirloom American apple first discovered as a chance seedling sometime before 1833. It was a favorite of Henry David Thoreau, who wrote about it in his essay Wild Apples: "for I do not refuse the Blue-Pearmain, I fill my pockets on each side; and as I retrace my steps in the frosty eve, being perhaps four or five miles from home, I eat one first from this side, and then from that, to keep my balance."