Garden Display: Codlings, Costards and Biffins

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The most prized of all our native fruits, apples are an important part of our national heritage. They are one of our oldest crops which for centuries have sustained us and through the ages have come to delight us in chutneys, jellies, puddings and pies and of course, the occasional cider! Traditional orchards once covered the land and each county lay claim to their own unique varieties from the well-loved ‘Blenheim Orange’ to the now rare ‘Gloucester White’ and ‘Wyken Pippin’.

The RHS has long supported our English apple growing industry. Commissioning fruit portraits by celebrated botanical artists and establishing living reference orchards across the gardens, for 200 years the RHS has helped to classify and to cultivate. This  garden display at RHS Garden Hyde Hall will explore our rich apple heritage by tracing the history of apple growing and explore our love for this most fantastic fruit.

Garden Displays will be at RHS Garden Harlow Carr and RHS Garden Hyde Hall. Exhibitions including original artworks will be at the RHS Lindley Library in London and at RHS Garden Rosemoor.

Displays include imagery from the RHS Lindley Library collections and from Beaford Archive. 

Image: [partial view] ‘The King of Pippins’ watercolour by William Hooker, dated 1817 © RHS Library Collections

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