Welcome to Orange Pippin

If you are interested in apple varieties, pears, cherries or plums, or orchards where these fruits are grown, you have come to the right place.

Our website is named after England's most famous apple variety - Cox's Orange Pippin - widely regarded as the finest of all dessert apples. 'Pippin' is an old English word derived from the French word for 'seedling', and like many old apple varieties Cox's Orange Pippin was discovered as a chance seedling.

Recent variety reviews

You can add your own comments on any variety page.

• Apple - Red Astrachan

  29 Mar 2020  Gary Bletsch,  WASHINGTON, United States

  The Astrakhan variety of apple figures prominently in "The Emigrants" series of novels by Vilhelm Moberg. These books tell the story of farmers who emigrated to Minnesota from Sweden. The wife of the main character misses the apples, so her husband arranges for seeds to be sent to their farm from family in Sweden.

• Apple - Opal

  29 Mar 2020  c Medlin,  CA, United States

  I love this apple! I’ve never tasted anything like it before. Firstly it’s beautiful and almost glows yellow. It is both sweet and tart. The unusual thing for me is that it has flower-like overtones. I have never tasted that in an apple before.

• Apple - Keepsake

  29 Mar 2020  Thomas Grace,  MN, United States

  Years ago I occasionally bought Keepsake apples at some of the suburban orchards around Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. They were difficult to find as the orchards that grew them would not offer them until November and most of my apple orchard roaming was over by them. I remember the Keepsake as being hard, crunch, sweet and aromatic. They are hard to find but is you stumble across an orchard that offers them, buy a bunch as they keep very well.

• Apple - Ellison's Orange

  28 Mar 2020  Mark Atkin,  GLOUCESTERSHIRE, United Kingdom

  I have an Ellison's Orange tree in my garden. I love to pick these and eat them straight from the tree. I don't like aniseed, but I can't taste that in them. Its my favourite apple when eaten fresh like this. Delicious flavour. Not too sweet, but not sharp either.

• Apple - Pink Lady

  23 Mar 2020  James,  CA, United States

  I love Pink Lady apples because to me they taste like lemonade and so crisp! Perfect balance of sweet and tart.

Latest spring blossom records from registered fruit trees

• 26th March 2020  Plum - Denniston's Superb owned by Richard in York, United Kingdom

Find out how to record your blossom dates in our Fruit Tree Register.