Hobbs Horticulture
Apple Scion
Apple Scion
~8 in. cutting for grafting to apple rootstock.
All scions will be enough to do at least 2 grafts. Diameter varies depending on variety and growth habit. If we only have smaller scions available, we will send 2.
Baldwin
Discovered in Massachusetts about 1740. Discovered on the Butters Farm by a surveyor planning the Middlesex Canal. Baldwin was the standard all-purpose variety in New England in the mid 1800’s up until the test winter of 1934 when the majority of trees died and were replanted with the hardier Mcintosh. Large, round, red, thick skinned fruit. Hard crisp juicy yellow flesh makes an excellent fresh eating and cooking apple. Keeps till spring. Makes great hard cider. Very vigorous healthy trees. Blooms early to midseason. (Zone 4)
Black Oxford
Hunt Russet x Blue Pearmain. Discovered in Oxford County, Maine late 1700's. Medium-sized round fruit, deep purple with a blackish bloom. Very striking apple. Good for pies, late cider, sauce. Also a great storage apple and is best eaten after a month or 2 of storage. Get's sweeter with age and can keep all winter for cooking. (Zone 4)
Blue Pearmain
Thought to be from Middlesex County Massachusetts grown since the 1700s. Moderately juicy flesh, firm, dense and slightly crisp, sweet with a bit of a tart background flavor. Incredibly beautiful large purple-red fruit is covered with a distinct dusty blue bloom giving it its name. Great all around heirloom variety, making great pies, baked apples and sauces. Keeps in the root cellar until midwinter. Blooms midseason. (Zone 4)
Canadian Strawberry
Beautiful superb-tasting dessert apple. Yellow skin mottled with red-orange. Very good early season cider. Vigorous, beautiful, healthy growing tree. Fruit keeps for about a month. Blooms midseason. (Zone 4)
Esopus Spitzenberg
Heirloom dessert variety mentioned in nearly every list of best-flavored apples. Slightly subacid, crisp and juicy. Excellent acid source for sweet or fermented cider. Medium-large bright red round-conic fruit, covered with russet dots. Famously Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple. Moderately susceptible to scab. (Zone 4)
Fallawater
Great winter keeper. Good fresh eating, and for fresh sweet cider. Distinctive very large blocky fruit, pale bluish-green skin and a rusty-pink blush. Mildly sweet very juicy flesh. Best fresh eating late fall into December. Vigorous grower. (Zone 4)
Fameuse (aka Snow)
Grimes Golden
Tart citrusy crisp medium yellow fruit with occasional russeting. Good all around apple. Great fresh eating, pies, sauce and cider. Thought to be a parent of Golden Delicious. Productive precocious tree. Blooms mid-late season. (Zone 4)
Hurlbut
High-quality fall dessert variety. Firm, tender, crisp, very juicy, mildly subacid. Also makes a good mild pink sauce. Small-to-medium red striped roundish fruit. Often has a russet stem splash making it look like a small Wolf River. Large vigorous trees. Keeps until early winter. Blooms early. (Zone 4)
King of Tompkins County
Very popular Heirloom variety. Good eating right off the tree in October, as well as for sauce and fresh cider. Crisp yellow flesh, juicy, tender, coarse with balanced flavor. Large to very large round-blocky dark orange-red fruit. Very vigorous and productive. Triploid. Keeps till January. (Zone 4)
Mama Duck
Hobbs Horticulture release. Chance seedling found growing in Hope, ME in 2023. Named after long time Hope resident Marion "Mama Duck" Hart, as the cross marking her gravesite atop her old blueberry field, looks down upon the original tree. This apple is medium to large, handsome golden yellow with great sugar acid balance. Original tree produces relatively clean fruit completely free from human intervention. Fruit ripens about the first week of September in Midcoast Maine. (At least zone 5 hardy).**Please note that this tree has not been observed more than one year and not at peak ripeness, as it was discovered a few weeks after the fruits were peak. But this apple impressed flavor wise enough to release it to those hardcore fruit collectors and backyard experimenters willing to be guinea pigs and report back. There is still a ton to learn about this tree, we will continue to update as we grow it in our orchards, but please graft at your own risk!**
St. Edmunds Russet
Excellent quality and highly flavored late September dessert fruit. Medium-sized roundish-conic fruit with uniform yellowish-tan russeting. Crisp, creamy white juicy flesh has a sweet pear-like flavor. Not a keeper. (Zone 4)
McIntosh
One of the most important varieties in New England orchards. First discovered by John McIntosh on his farm near the St. Lawrence River. There are many strains of McIntosh, some selected for looks and shelf life rather than flavor. The strain we are offering is the old original variety, which has the full mac flavor. Excellent fresh off the tree, great for sauce but turns to soup in a pie. Annual cropper. Large beautifully rounded spreading strong tree is easy to manage. Extremely susceptible to scab. (Zone 4)