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Apple (Malus domestica) include more than twenty-five different species, along with a vast number of fruit and ornamental hybrids.
Apples thrive in a well-drained loam. Shallow soils over chalk are unsuitable for growing all but a very few apples, whilst dessert apples need good drainage, and culinary apples are more tolerant. Preferring a sheltered, frost-free position in full sun, they are an ideal choice for London gardens and community orchards.
They can easily propagate from seed. However, successful fruiting often relies on cross pollination, meaning that most of our familiar species (fruit trees and roses) are grafted.
The true native apple is the crab apple (M. sylvestris) and not found on the Common. All our apples have grown either from pips in discarded cores or are garden escapes (such as the ornamental apple near Ranelagh Avenue).
The origin of the word ‘crab’ applied to the wild apple is uncertain. Most probably it is linked to old Norse ‘scrabbe’ (apples), but it might also be from ‘crabbed’, meaning deformed, cankered or not growing true. Either way, the word has been applied to these native apples for at least six centuries.
Apples have a place in English folklore and are often associated with true love: throw a pip in the fire and if it explodes your love is true, but sadly things don’t look good if it simply burns away. The West Country tradition of Wassail is one that FoBC introduced to Barnes Common to celebrate the planting of our new community orchard in 2019. We are delighted that our Barnes Common Winter Wassail is now a firm favourite in our annual calendar.
Although apples on the Common are not native, that does not mean they have not been appreciated. When the Common was grazed, the apple crop was much prized for fodder. There is a seventeenth century record of one commoner being fined the enormous sum of five shillings for taking too many for his pigs. Today, the fruits are rarely harvested, but some of the trees support mistletoe, absent until we ‘innoculated’ several trees with seed in 2010 as part of the local mistletoe species action plan.
Do you have an old fruit tree in your garden? Our conservation team is interested in recording all the old orchard trees that are a legacy from the market gardens of Barnes. Many of these old trees are vital for local wildlife and it is important that they are recorded and cared for.
We want to create a map of the old orchard trees in private gardens, and we can organise getting your tree DNA tested if you do not know what variety your fruit tree is. This is an important ecological research and social history project and its success depends on collecting as much data as we possibly can – and you can help!
Contact Will if you would like to know more about our Heritage Tree Project, have an old fruit tree or be involved in any way.
References and Further Reading
Apple (Malus domestica) include more than twenty-five different species, along with a vast number of fruit and ornamental hybrids.
Apples thrive in a well-drained loam. Shallow soils over chalk are unsuitable for growing all but a very few apples, whilst dessert apples need good drainage, and culinary apples are more tolerant. Preferring a sheltered, frost-free position in full sun, they are an ideal choice for London gardens and community orchards.
They can easily propagate from seed. However, successful fruiting often relies on cross pollination, meaning that most of our familiar species (fruit trees and roses) are grafted.
The true native apple is the crab apple (M. sylvestris) and not found on the Common. All our apples have grown either from pips in discarded cores or are garden escapes (such as the ornamental apple near Ranelagh Avenue).
The origin of the word ‘crab’ applied to the wild apple is uncertain. Most probably it is linked to old Norse ‘scrabbe’ (apples), but it might also be from ‘crabbed’, meaning deformed, cankered or not growing true. Either way, the word has been applied to these native apples for at least six centuries.
Apples have a place in English folklore and are often associated with true love: throw a pip in the fire and if it explodes your love is true, but sadly things don’t look good if it simply burns away. The West Country tradition of Wassail is one that FoBC introduced to Barnes Common to celebrate the planting of our new community orchard in 2019. We are delighted that our Barnes Common Winter Wassail is now a firm favourite in our annual calendar.
Although apples on the Common are not native, that does not mean they have not been appreciated. When the Common was grazed, the apple crop was much prized for fodder. There is a seventeenth century record of one commoner being fined the enormous sum of five shillings for taking too many for his pigs. Today, the fruits are rarely harvested, but some of the trees support mistletoe, absent until we ‘innoculated’ several trees with seed in 2010 as part of the local mistletoe species action plan.
Do you have an old fruit tree in your garden? Our conservation team is interested in recording all the old orchard trees that are a legacy from the market gardens of Barnes. Many of these old trees are vital for local wildlife and it is important that they are recorded and cared for.
We want to create a map of the old orchard trees in private gardens, and we can organise getting your tree DNA tested if you do not know what variety your fruit tree is. This is an important ecological research and social history project and its success depends on collecting as much data as we possibly can – and you can help!
Contact Will if you would like to know more about our Heritage Tree Project, have an old fruit tree or be involved in any way.
References and Further Reading
Barnes Common
Vine Road Pavilion
Vine Road
Barnes SW13 0NE