That must have been almost a full time job for a month or more. I’ve only gotten 250 varieties for grafting, and that is spread over 4 years. I started more gradually with only about 20 in each of the first two years. I didn’t want to waste too much time or money if I turned out to be completely incompetent at it.
That’s disappointing. Stephen Hayes describes Suntan as follows on his website:
Suntan- Irritating name but heavy cropping, long keeping apple with a WOW! flavour of tropical fruits and
concentrated sunshine. The first time we tasted this apple I ate 5 or 6 non stop until my guts were bursting, it tasted that good. Pineapples, mangos and melons were noticeable among the rich mix of exotic fruit flavours in this delightful fruit. The flavour more like an over-the-top Aussie Shiraz-Cabernet red wine than the dull stuff sold as apples these days-seriously, you have to try it. It was grown at the famous East Malling research station, Kent, in 1955 (same year I was born) by Dr Alston from a cross between Cox’s Orange Pippin and the ancient variety Court Pendu Plat (see above). It is a triploid so needs a pollinator, but is a regular and heavy cropper which flowers late so misses the frost (taking after Court Pendu in this respect) and has a fantastic flavour. We ate some on 9th July 2004 from the 2003 season STILL CRUNCHY and full of flavour. We are increasing the number of trees of this sort that we grow. I think this apple should be renamed Bunyard’s Pippin and grown EVERYWHERE.
Here’s Stephen Hayes’ video on May Queen.
