I have a xerox of Henry Morton’s “Old Fashioned Apple Trees” catalog from 86/87, including a handwritten note to the catalog recipient. I will mail a copy to someone if they know how to scan and post it on this site. It’s filled with Limbertwig descriptions and many more varieties.
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Haha! Nice one Hambone! What a coop d’etat!
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PM sent. Thanks!
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Thanks for doing this. If that can be scanned in and added to the reference section, I know that I would certainly enjoy that.
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What UnderDawg said…
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I just remembered where I got this Morton catalog: from Ron Joyner of Big Horse Creek Farm NC who did a lot of business with Rev. Morton and was so kind to search his files and mail this to me last year. Credit to him. Ron has searched and searched for the 25 missing Morton limbertwig varieties to no avail. Rev. Morton sent scions of many of his trees to friends, customers. I wonder why he didn’t send scions of the missing 25? Maybe he thought they didn’t measure up, weren’t high enough quality or had not yet fruited for him?
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I wonder if anyone ever tried to glean from Mr. Morton’s collection before the associated land perhaps got tied up for other purposes.
I thought about it, talked to his widow on the phone, but was pretty far away. Right after his very sudden death, the plight of his orchard was described in a NAFEX article so a lot of people knew it was going to be sold and probably destroyed.
That’s why our few preservation orchards like Horne Creek Preservation Orchard, Seed Savers Exchange Orchard, Temperate Orchard Conservancy, are so important.
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Ugh. That’s upsetting.
Yeah, and Geneva USDA. I wish we could bolster and expand that program.
Okay okay; I won’t get into politics.
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I wish I knew how to do that scanning and posting thing. I’m lucky to be able to log on and off the computer to get online here. I look forward to seeing this catalog of Rev. Morton. Great job getting it hambone.
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I never knew that old catalog site existed. Love those old catalogs. Thank you for the links to these.
Still eagerly waiting to see Mr. Morton’s catalog. I hope at least one of us Limbertwig enthusiast will be smart enough to scan and post this catalog. 
Catalog is en route to member in Ohio who will post it. Not sure there are many surprises in it but it’s refreshing to see descriptions that am pretty sure Rev. Morton wrote from firsthand experience.
I want to be sure we credit Ron Joyner of Big Horse Creek Farm who last year spent a lot of precious time going through his files to locate this catalog and send it to me. Ron is intensely interested in the preservation and spreading around of Limbertwigs.
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Ron’s blog that is featured on the Big Horse Creek website is an extremely interesting read for heirloom apple enthusiasts. His latest entry on the (Northern) Crow Egg apple convinced me to graft several.
Thanks again Hambone for making this catalog available for all who are interested in heirloom apples.
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Thank you very much to Ron Joyner of Big Horse Creek Farm, NC, as the source of the catalog. Last year Ron searched many files to come up with this catalog. As well as Steve (Hambone) for making these scans available.
Because of the file size limitation on Growing Fruit Org, the US Archives PDF has a better image of the catalog.
Henry Morton.pdf (291.1 KB)
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Thanks Bob for uploading Henry Morton’s catalog. I’m glad we’re preserving it for others to see.
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Thanks so much for sharing this interesting info. The Limbertwig varieties have really caught my interest. I currently have 8 varieties growing on 2-3 year old trees. I need to search out scion wood next winter of more of these rare varieties. The majority of my scion has come from Ron at Big Horse Creek. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to obtain Limbertwig scion?
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Ron Joyner of Big Horse Creek Farm, NC, sells Limbertwig trees and scions.
Steve Kelly of Big Stone Gap, Va sells scions of 25 or so Limbertwig varieties. No website. You can email him and ask him to email you his scion list: kellysoldtimeyappletrees@comcast.net
Derek Mills of Hocking Hills Orchard sells Limbertwig scions: derekcs2005@aol.com
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Greyphase I grafted white, black, Myers green, ashford’s, watt’s, Weaver’s red sweet, and red royal limbertwig this year.
Next year if you want the tops of any of them when I head them back you can have them.
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