Boston Flora

Tag: heirloom apples

  • Heirloom Orchard Endowment at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill

    New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill is thrilled to announce a transformative $500,000 gift from George and Diantha Harrington of Kennebunk, Maine, in support of the Garden’s Frank L. Harrington Orchard. This extraordinary contribution will add to the Harrington Orchard endowment to ensure the preservation, care, and educational impact of this heirloom apple orchard for generations to come.

    Located along the botanic garden’s entry drive, the Harrington Orchard is a cherished feature that celebrates the region’s rich agricultural history. It preserves a collection of 119 heirloom apple varieties in an orchard of 268 trees. Also known as heritage apples, heirloom varieties have been passed down over generations and are celebrated for their diversity of taste, color, texture, and size. The Garden’s collection was founded during the Great Depression by Stearns Lothrop Davenport (1885–1973), a trustee of the Worcester County Horticultural Society (WCHS), the organization that operates New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. Representing a range of rare and historic apple varieties, the Harrington Orchard is both a living museum and an educational resource, connecting visitors to the art, science, and history of heirloom fruit cultivation.

    “The Harrington Orchard has been a long-term family interest for our family,” said George Harrington. Frank L. Harrington, for whom the orchard is named, was George Harrington’s father and a long-time WCHS supporter. The Harrington family has a connection to Worcester County that dates back generations, with members serving in leadership roles within local government and cultural institutions. George Harrington’s uncle, H. Waite Hurlburt, served as WCHS president from 1979 to 1984. “With this gift, we hope to ensure the Orchard’s vitality and to inspire others to appreciate the deep history and scientific importance of heirloom fruit trees,” Harrington says.

    The endowment supports long-term orchard care, including pruning, pest management, tree replacement, and interpretive programming. As apples cannot be preserved in a seedbank, maintaining living collections like the Harrington Orchard protects uncommon varieties from being lost. Thanks to recent collaborations with academic partners and other experts, the Harrington Orchard is emerging as a resource for advancing scientific knowledge of rare heirloom apple varieties and expanding public awareness about the importance of agricultural biodiversity.

    “George and DD Harrington’s generosity is a testament to their dedication to the preservation of the living collection of this heirloom orchard,” said Grace Elton, CEO of New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. “Their gift ensures that the Harrington Orchard will continue to flourish, delight, and educate our community for decades to come.”

    The Frank L. Harrington Orchard is a vital part of the Garden’s commitment to environmental stewardship and the protection of natural resources. To learn more, visit https://nebg.org/orchard/.

    Photo Caption/Credit: Apple blossom blooms in the Frank L. Harrington Orchard at New England Botanic Garden / New England Botanic Garden, Megan Stouffer

  • Wednesday, June 15, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Restoring the Heirloom Apple Orchard at Tower Hill, Online

    Learn about the restoration of New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill’s heirloom apple orchard. This free webinar on June 15 at noon is sponsored by the Ecological Landscape Alliance. Register at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/restoring-the-heirloom-apple-orchard-at-tower-hill/ Mark Richardson is Director of Horticulture for The New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston, MA, where he oversees the horticulture and horticulture outreach staff and serves as chair of the garden’s sustainability committee. Prior to joining the staff at Tower Hill, Mark served as Botanic Garden Director for Native Plant Trust, where he oversaw Garden in the Woods and Nasami Farm native plant nursery. He has a passion for ecological horticulture and native plants and is co-author of Native Plants for New England Gardens (Globe Pequot, 2018).

    Copyright: c Mary Kocol
  • “Buy a Tree, Give a Tree” Heirloom Apple Orchard Fundraiser

    “Buy a Tree, Give a Tree” Heirloom Apple Orchard Fundraiser

    Would you like to own a piece of Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s history while contributing to its future? The “Buy A Tree, Give a Tree” fundraising campaign is underway. For $200 you can select an apple tree sapling grown from trees in our historic heirloom apple orchard. For this price, you’ll receive a tree of your own to be picked up in the spring and you’ll make a tax deductible contribution to the garden’s horticulture operations as we complete the renovation of our historic heirloom apple orchard.

    You’ll be able to choose your tree from one of 119 heirloom varieties that are part of the Davenport Collection at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. Your tree was propagated by grafting scionwood collected from a tree in the Davenport Collection by Fedco Trees in Maine. Tower Hill began restoring this historic and important collection in 2019, when the existing trees in the collection were nearly thirty years old and showing varying signs of disease and stress that come with age. Your tree will be a two-year-old bare root branched sapling, 5 to 7 feet tall. Planting instructions will be provided at time of pick up in late winter/early spring 2021 and notification of pickup date will be emailed several weeks in advance. Bare root trees must be planted immediately following pickup.

    The apple varieties you know and love don’t “come true” when grown from seed, so they are asexually or clonally propagated through the process of grafting. Grafting allows apple growers to grow desirable named varieties that have specific properties like taste, color, disease resistance, or hardiness. For example, every Macoun apple eaten today is genetically identical to the first Macoun tree named by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in 1923. Scionwood collected from that first tree where carefully spliced onto other apple trees and apple rootstocks to create more Macoun trees. If you planted a seed from your Macoun apple, the fruit from that tree might taste similar to a Macoun, but thanks to bees transporting pollen from one variety to another, the fruit you grew from seed to tree would include notes of other apple varieties.

    To purchase, or to make a donation, visit https://www.towerhillbg.org/orchard/

  • Saturday, April 14, 9:30 am – 11:00 am – New England Orchard Revival: Resurrecting the Heirloom Apple

    Bringing your old apple tree back to life and fruitful production will require vision, a bit of thoughtful commitment, tasteful pruning, much needed but constrained fertilizing and dedicated, knowledgeable seasonal management. This informative and entertaining presentation will touch on New England’s tradition of apple production, practical lessons in heirloom revival, new disease resistant and low impact varieties and some tastings of recently developed varieties to help you consider if apples will be included in your garden design.

    Peter Jentsch has been planting, studying and tasting apples for the past 30 years. His passion for pomology and the animals that fertilize fruit trees as host plants has guided his career as Director of the Hudson Valley Research Laboratory and faculty entomologist at the College of Ag and Life Sciences at Cornell University. He will speak at Hollister House Garden, 300 Nettleton Hollow Road in Washington, Connecticut on Saturday, April 14 from 9:30 – 11. HHG Members $30; Non-Members $35. Register online at https://hollisterhousegarden.org/events/new-england-orchard-revival-resurrecting-heirloom-apple/

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  • Saturday, March 21, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Grafting Heirloom Apple Trees for the Home Garden

    Explore the art and science of grafting plants at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, March 21 from 10 – 1. Join grafting guru Adam Wheeler, from Connecticut’s Broken Arrow Nursery, for this hands-on workshop that explores the world of grafting with a focus on heirloom apples trees. Participants will be given a brief lecture that explores the methods and intricacies of this time-tested craft. Following the lecture, participants will practice this new-found skill by grafting several heirloom apple varieties to add to their home orchards.

    Adam Wheeler is the Propagation and New Plant Development Manager for Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden, CT, a specialty nursery with a focus on woody plants. He teaches woody plant propagation workshops throughout New England.  BBG members $40, nonmembers $45.  Register online at http://www.berkshirebotanical.org/event/grafting-heirloom-apple-trees-for-the-home-garden/?instance_id=3278. Image from www.seedsavers.org.

  • Saturday, October 8 – Monday, October 10, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Shades of Autumn Arts & Crafts Fair

    Celebrate the New England harvest with apple cider, a special harvest menu in Twigs Cafe, and locally made products for sale at the Shades of Autumn Arts & Crafts Fair: The Family Celebration of the Fall Harvest Season, at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, Massachusetts.  The Fair will take place on Columbus Day Weekend, October 8 – 10, from 9 – 5.  Farm animals, displays of garden produce, an arts and crafts market, and taste-testing tours of the heirloom apple orchard will round out the weekend.  Visit www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111 for more information.  Photo by Susan Herrmann Lewis, author of Nuts in the Kitchen.