GEORGE CARPENTER A handsome, mid-season dessert apple introduced in Surrey in 1902 and named after its raiser. A cross between Blenheim Orange and King of the Pippins, so it has firm flesh and a rich flavour. It keeps until November.
 

 
GEORGE CAVE Introduced by Seabrook’s Nursery of Essex in 1945, though it had been raised by George Cave in 1923. An early dessert apple, which is ready in mid-August, with small to medium fruit, flushed red and with crisp and juicy flesh. The crops are good and the apples colour well, developing an intense flavour in warm summers. The blossom is said to withstand frost. It does not store for long.

 

GEORGE NEAL An early culinary or dessert apple raised in 1904, by Mrs Reeves of Otford in Kent, and introduced in 1923 by R. Neal and Sons of Wandsworth. The yellow/green apples are flushed with scarlet and have russet spots. They are crisp and juicy and keep their shape well when cooked. The trees have attractive blossom and crop well.

 
GEORGE NEILSON Another old variety which was assumed extinct in Britain, but which we rediscovered in Tasmania and brought back in 2005. The only record we have of it says that it was grown in Scotland and received by the National Fruit Trials in 1939. The tree failed and there has been no word of it since. It fruited here in 2006 and turns out to be a very good apple, indeed. It is a medium sized, truncate conic, smoothly rounded apple, quite flattened, with a small eye, very open, in a wide shallow basin. The stalk is short and obliquely set. The skin is pale green with many thin red streaks, where exposed to the sun, sometimes more widely red. It can be thinly russeted, especially at the stalk and with russet flecks on the body. It is sweet, with a rich flavour, crisp and juicy. Fruit is ripe in early October and will store for a few months. It seems to be a regular cropper.

 

GILLIFLOWER A very old English apple dating at least from Parkinson in 1629. He said of it “The Gilloflower apple is a fine apple, and finely spotted.” Forsyth in 1810 says of it “The Gilliflower is a fine handsome Apple, red towards the sun, and of a yellowish-green on the other side. It is of a fine flavour, and keeps till the latter end of March.” Hogg reported it as a large ribbed, conical, codlin shaped, culinary apple, though quite sweet, in use in October. It was known to exist in 1884 but has not been recorded in Britain since. Discovering it in the American collection (USDA), we grafted the first new trees in 2005, upon receiving scionwood from there. It has historically been grown from Cumberland to Kent. Part tip bearing.

 
GIPSY KING A nineteenth century dessert apple, introduced in 1875. It is an attractive fruit, once said to have a flattish shape and with greenish-yellow skin, flushed red. Firm flesh, with a rich flavour. Ripens in mid October and will store until Christmas. The accession in the National Collection, the same as offered here, has now been removed by them under the assumption that it is not the true original, and the longer conical shape certainly does not accord with the most complete description in the Herefordshire Pomona. But this apple, whatever it is, is still a very good and attractive fruit.

 

GLADSTONE A seedling that arose around 1780 and was found in a field near Kidderminster by William Jackson of Blakedown Nursery. It was introduced as Jackson's Seedling in 1868 and was subsequently renamed in 1883. An early dessert apple, often ready by the end of July, with large, greeny-yellow, red flushed fruit. The crisp flesh is flavoured of raspberries. Trees have a spreading habit and are tip-bearing. Crops are good but need to be eaten quickly as the apple does not keep long.

 
GLORIA MUNDI Also called the Monstrous Pippin or the Ox Apple. First recorded in the U.S.A. in 1804, and introduced to England in 1817. It may originally have come from middle Europe. Once very widely grown throut Britain. A middle-season culinary apple, very large and irregularly shaped, which cooks to a dark golden, sweet purée. Stores until December. Part tip bearing.