Virginia Beauty and Her Kin

(Page 4 of 6)

October/November 1996
By Tim Hensley 
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Sadly, of that number, only three or four are available at the typical garden center today. The deeper tragedy, however, is that while southerners developed about 1,400 unique apple varieties, nearly 1,100 are now considered extinct. With the coming of the railroads, the decline in subsistence farming in the 1930s, and the postwar exodus to suburbia, many of the old varieties fell into disuse and passed off the scene virtually unnoticed.

We should be thankful, though, that nearly 300 of the very best southern apples are still available. Hobbyists and independent nurserymen, searching old homesteads, pruners at the ready, have preserved an irreplaceable part of the South's agricultural heritage. Even more encouraging, there has been a resurgence of interest in antique apples over the last 10 years, and many varieties that were thought to be extinct are being rediscovered in abandoned orchards all over the South. Just this past winter we got a letter from a fellow who was looking for an old Lincoln apple. With only one Lincoln tree left standing in his orchard, he was hoping to purchase another. Unfamiliar with the variety, I looked over some literature to see what I could find out.

After checking several sources, the confirming description turned up in some unbound material sent to me by a fellow nurseryman. A surge of adrenaline ran through me when the last word in the blurb read: "Extinct."

TREES SHOULD BE planted in full sun. Six hours of sun a day is the minimum to ensure vigorous growth and good fruit.

So how do you go about getting old southern varieties? As alluded to above, you'll search in vain at your local garden shop. Apple varieties handled by the mass merchandisers are propagated the same way, in mass. Variety selection is therefore very limited. These outlets tend to think in terms of color: a good red apple, a good yellow apple, a good green apple. Translated that means: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith.

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