Spring / Summer 2025Pre-orders will be open again from May. Deliveries will begin again from late November.
Roots2Fruits logo
Roots 2 Fruits
Simple bare root fruit trees and ornamental trees

Lord Derby

Lord Derby apples
Lord Derby is listed in the RHS Plants for Pollinators

Lord Derby is a traditional large English cooking apple, ripening in the mid to late season - from mid-September to early October.

Lord Derby fills a useful gap in the culinary apple calendar, arriving after the early cookers such as Keswick Codlin and Grenadier, and before the later cookers such as Bramley. This is not a variety for winter storage but the apples can be kept for a month or so in a cool place.

The Victorian author Hogg rated Lord Derby as an "excellent culinary apple". The flavour is nicely acidic if picked young, but milder if picked when fully ripe (at which point the skin develops a more yellow hue).

Although usually considered a cooking apple, many Lord Derby enthusiasts regard it as an excellent sharp eating apple too.

Lord Derby apple trees for sale

  • RF11-year bare-root tree on M26 rootstock£34.95
    Mature height: 2m-3.5m after 10 years
    Suitable for a semi-dwarf apple tree, a medium apple spindlebush, a medium apple fan or espalier, a large apple cordon or U-cordon.
    Available next season
  • RF21-year bare-root tree on MM106 rootstock£34.95
    Mature height: 3m-5m after 10 years
    Can be trained on as a large free-standing apple tree, a half-standard apple tree, a large apple fan or espalier, or a pleached apple tree.
    Available next season

Growing and Training

Lord Derby is a very easy apple tree for the garden, and like many Victorian culinary apples it has excellent natural disease resistance. It seems to be happy in both wetter and drier climates.


Recommended pollinators for Lord Derby apple trees

Lord Derby is not self-fertile, so you will need another different but compatible variety planted nearby in order to produce fruit. The following varieties are good pollinators for Lord Derby. If you are not sure about pollination requirements don't hesitate to ask us.

  • Pollinator Braeburn
    Braeburn
    Braeburn is one of the best-flavoured supermarket apple varieties.
  • Pollinator Gala
    Gala
    Gala is popular supermarket apple - but better when home-grown, with a sweet pleasant flavour.
  • Pollinator Newton Wonder
    Newton Wonder
    A traditional English cooking apple, a good alternative to Bramley.
  • Pollinator Ellison's Orange
    Ellison's Orange
    Ellison's Orange is a well respected Cox-style apple which can achieve very good flavour.
  • Pollinator Golden Hornet
    Golden Hornet
    Malus Golden Hornet is a traditional white blossom crab apple, with persistent yellow fruits.
  • Pollinator King of the Pippins
    King of the Pippins
    A popular and versatile dual-purpose apple, widely grown in the Victorian era.
  • Pollinator Peasgood's Nonsuch
    Peasgood's Nonsuch
    Peasgood Nonsuch is a highly-regarded old-fashioned English cooking apple.
  • Pollinator John Downie
    John Downie
    John Downie is a traditional crab apple for making crab apple jelly. White blossom and orange-red fruits.

History

Cheshire, 19th century.


Lord Derby characteristics

  • Gardening skillBeginner
  • Fruit persistenceNormal ripening
  • Self-fertile?Not self-fertile
  • Pollinating othersAverage
  • Pick seasonLate
  • Picking periodearly September
  • Keeping1-2 months
  • Food usesCulinaryJuiceTraditional cooker
  • Country of originUnited Kingdom
  • Period of origin1850 - 1899

You might also like these varieties

  • See also Arthur Turner
    Arthur Turner
    A mid-season cooking apple, producing a light yellow puree. Very attractive blossom.
  • See also Bramley's Seedling
    Bramley's Seedling
    Bramley is the essential English cooking apple, famous for its rich sharp acidity.
  • See also Howgate Wonder
    Howgate Wonder
    Howgate Wonder is a large cooking apple which keeps well. Produces an excellent sharp juice.
  • See also Peasgood's Nonsuch
    Peasgood's Nonsuch
    Peasgood Nonsuch is a highly-regarded old-fashioned English cooking apple.

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.


Pages you viewed