The comprehensive resource for apples and orchards

Greensleeves apple

A good garden apple, with a pleasant but unexceptional flavour.

Greensleeves photo tape

This apple can be picked in mid-September but will happily stay on the tree into October so you can eat it fresh from the tree for at least a month. This, along with its good cropping, make it a really excellent variety to grow in the garden.

In theory Greensleeves marries the sweet flavour of its Golden Delicious parent balanced by the acidity of its other parent, James Grieve. It can be hard and sharp early in the season but mellows later, but it never quite achieves what the parentage suggests it should.

As the photo shows, Greensleeves is actually a lovely golden yellow colour if you leave it on the tree into October.

Last updated 10 Jun 2010.

Summary

  • Species: Malus domestica
  • Parentage: Golden Delicious and James Grieve
  • Origin: Kent, England, United Kingdom
  • Introduced: 1966
  • Orange Pippin Cultivar ID: 102600
  • Some historical details taken with kind permission from 'The New Book of Apples' by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards , illustrated by Elisabeth Dowle, published by Ebury Press, 2002.

Identification

  • Bultitude apple group: 5. Yellow, smooth, sweet or acidic

Using

  • Good for eating fresh
  • Good for juice
  • Flavour quality: Average
  • Flavour style: Sweet/Sharp
  • Ripening period: Mid season
  • Use / keeping: 1 week

Growing

  • Cropping: Heavy
  • Flowering group: 3
  • Fertility: Partially self-fertile
  • Triploid: No
  • Good pollinator: Yes
  • Vigour: Weak growing
  • Gardening skill: Very easy
  • Fruit bearing: Spur-bearer
  • Attractive blossom
  • Attractive fruit
  • General disease resistance: Good

Climate

  • Suitable for temperate climates
  • Suitable for N. England?: Yes

Other qualities

  • RHS Award of Garden Merit 1993

Relationships to other varieties

Parents and other ancestors of this variety:

Offspring of this variety:

Greensleeves identification photos from official fruit collections


ARS GRIN

©Copyright
ARS GRIN

UK National Fruit Collection

©Crown Copyright more >
UK National Fruit Collection

Greensleeves identification photos from website visitors



Rate this variety for flavor

Current rating: out of 5. Total votes cast: 0
 

Visitor comments

(Use the form at the bottom to add your own comments about this variety)

03 Oct 2010 Ann FlemingOXON, United Kingdom
I was looking to buy a new eating apple for the garden and tasted several varieties at the garden centre. I would not have thought of this variety but one taste and I was hooked! A lovely firm apple that is sweet but with a hint of sharpness. I await the fruit from my own tree with eager anticipation.

12 Oct 2008 Richard PearceLERRYN,LOSTWITHIEL,CORNWALL, United Kingdom
Today 12/10/08 my two boys Matthew and Jack (8 and 4) tasted three varieties in Jacks Orchard (i Planted 34 trees in 2003 to mark Jacks birth ) Discovery, Ashmeads Kernal and Greensleeves and we all voted this apple the best - Sweet juicy and crisp- a real winner. The boys take a real interest in their apples and are lovely to watch tasting - some got spat out as too sour but this was a real winner for them. hope this is of use to you if you have children.

30 Sep 2008 Chris MathewsLONDON, United Kingdom
A friend gives me several pounds of Greensleeves each year from his garden, and I find they go golden beutifully in the fruit bowl. To my taste they fully live up to their parentage, in texture, juice and flavour, provided you find mellow varieties satisfying. It isn't sensational, but it is luscious, exceptionally pleasant and has most of what's missing from Golden Delicious. It's hardly worth bothering to take the small core out, as there's nothing woody there.

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Fruit tree register

Do you have a tree of this variety in your garden or orchard? If so please register the details here and contribute to our international register of fruit trees.

The following Greensleeves trees have been registered - click the name to view more details of each tree.

You can also view these trees on a map.

United States

United Kingdom



Latest Spring blossom records for this variety

2011 season

  • 15th April  2011  - tree owned by Andrew in St Saviour, United Kingdom

2010 season

  • 5th May  2010  - tree owned by Elizabeth in EVESHAM, United Kingdom
  • 2nd May  2010  - tree owned by Stuart in Newbury, United Kingdom

Record your blossom dates in our Fruit Tree Register - more >>.

Latest harvest records for this variety

2011 season

    2010 season

    • 3rd week September  2010  - tree owned by Bluemarlin in BURNLEY, United Kingdom

Mature heights for Greensleeves trees

This table shows the likely mature height for a Greensleeves tree taking into account the vigor of the variety, the rootstock, and soil conditions.

Rootstock Soil quality
Poor Below average Average Above average Very good
P22 1.8 ft
0.5 m
2.2 ft
0.7 m
2.6 ft
0.8 m
3.1 ft
0.9 m
3.5 ft
1.1 m
M27 2.0 ft
0.6 m
2.5 ft
0.8 m
3.0 ft
0.9 m
3.5 ft
1.1 m
4.0 ft
1.2 m
M9 3.0 ft
0.9 m
3.8 ft
1.2 m
4.5 ft
1.4 m
5.3 ft
1.6 m
6.0 ft
1.8 m
Bud.9 3.0 ft
0.9 m
3.8 ft
1.2 m
4.5 ft
1.4 m
5.3 ft
1.6 m
6.0 ft
1.8 m
Geneva 16 3.0 ft
0.9 m
3.8 ft
1.2 m
4.5 ft
1.4 m
5.3 ft
1.6 m
6.0 ft
1.8 m
Geneva 11 3.5 ft
1.1 m
4.4 ft
1.3 m
5.3 ft
1.6 m
6.1 ft
1.9 m
7.0 ft
2.1 m
M26 3.8 ft
1.2 m
4.7 ft
1.4 m
5.6 ft
1.7 m
6.6 ft
2.0 m
7.5 ft
2.3 m
Geneva 30 4.0 ft
1.2 m
5.0 ft
1.5 m
6.0 ft
1.8 m
7.0 ft
2.1 m
8.0 ft
2.5 m
MM102 4.0 ft
1.2 m
5.0 ft
1.5 m
6.0 ft
1.8 m
7.0 ft
2.1 m
8.0 ft
2.5 m
M7 4.5 ft
1.4 m
5.6 ft
1.7 m
6.8 ft
2.1 m
7.9 ft
2.4 m
9.0 ft
2.8 m
M116 4.5 ft
1.4 m
5.6 ft
1.7 m
6.8 ft
2.1 m
7.9 ft
2.4 m
9.0 ft
2.8 m
MM106 5.0 ft
1.5 m
6.3 ft
1.9 m
7.5 ft
2.3 m
8.8 ft
2.7 m
10.0 ft
3.1 m
MM111 6.0 ft
1.8 m
7.5 ft
2.3 m
9.0 ft
2.8 m
10.5 ft
3.2 m
12.0 ft
3.7 m
Bud.118 6.5 ft
2.0 m
8.1 ft
2.5 m
9.8 ft
3.0 m
11.4 ft
3.5 m
13.0 ft
4.0 m
M25 7.5 ft
2.3 m
9.4 ft
2.9 m
11.3 ft
3.5 m
13.1 ft
4.0 m
15.0 ft
4.6 m

From an idea by N. Buck - more details.

Where to buy apple trees

The following fruit tree nurseries offer Greensleeves apple trees for sale:

Where to buy apples

The following orchards and suppliers offer Greensleeves apples for sale. map >

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