Lady Henniker
Malus domestica Lady Henniker is a traditional Victorian apple variety - heavy-cropping, reliable, and easy to grow.
Although primarily used as a cooker - it cooks down to a sweet-sharp puree - it is also a good apple for eating fresh if you like a sharper flavour.
Lady Henniker apple trees for sale
1-year bare-root
tree
on M25 rootstock£35.75
Mature height: 5m-7m after 10 years
Can be trained on to produce a big 'standard' free-standing apple tree in a traditional apple orchard.
Available next season
Growing and Training
Lady Henniker is a fairly vigorous variety, and produces an attractive large tree when grafted on a vigorous rootstock. Although it is a regular cropper, cropping can be light in the first few years as the tree grows.
Disease resistance is good.
Recommended pollinators for Lady Henniker apple trees
Lady Henniker is not self-fertile and is also a poor pollinator of other varieties. Ideally you need two other different but compatible varieties planted nearby in order to produce fruit, or one compatible self-fertile variety.
The following varieties are good pollinators for Lady Henniker.
If you are not sure about pollination requirements don't hesitate to ask us.
BraeburnBraeburn is one of the best-flavoured supermarket apple varieties.
Ellison's OrangeEllison's Orange is a well respected Cox-style apple which can achieve very good flavour.
GalaGala is popular supermarket apple - but better when home-grown, with a sweet pleasant flavour.
Golden GemA traditional crab-apple featuring a mass of white blossom in spring, followed by yellow crab apples.
Golden HornetMalus Golden Hornet is a traditional white blossom crab apple, with persistent yellow fruits.
Harry BakerMalus Harry Baker is a popular crab-apple with deep pink flowers and dark red fruits which are very good for crab-apple jelly.
John DownieJohn Downie is a traditional crab apple for making crab apple jelly. White blossom and orange-red fruits.
King of the PippinsA popular and versatile dual-purpose apple, widely grown in the Victorian era.
History
Lady Henniker was raised from a pip in the 1840s by John Perkins, the gardener to Lord Henniker, of Thornham Hall in Suffolk. The parentage is unknown.
Lady Henniker characteristics
- Gardening skillAverage
- Fruit persistenceNormal ripening
- Self-fertile?Not self-fertile
- Pollinating othersPoor
- Pick seasonLate
- Picking monthSeptember
- Keeping3 months or more
- Food usesEating freshCulinaryTraditional cookerDual purpose
- Country of originUnited Kingdom
- Period of origin1800 - 1849
You might also like these varieties
JupiterJupiter is a popular Cox-style apple with a slightly stronger flavour.
King of the PippinsA popular and versatile dual-purpose apple, widely grown in the Victorian era.
Orleans ReinetteOrleans Reinette is a traditional French apple variety, and remains popular for its old-fashioned flavour.
More about apple trees
We've all grown up with Bramley cookng apples so we take it for granted that cooking apples are different to eating apples, but, surprisingly, the UK is one of the few countries that makes such a distinction between apples for cooking and apples for eating fresh.
The main qualtities of a good "cooker" are size - the bigger the better - and acidity. Counter-intuitively, it is the acid which gives cooking apples their flavour. In contrast the flavour of sweet dessert apples collapses with cooking.
Cooking apples are usually easier to grow than eating apples, and will tolerate partial shade.
