That “Hillside” doesn’t show up in Rev. Morton’s old catalog or on Dan Bussey’s (Seed Savers Exch) list of 98 Limbertwigs. I wonder where it came from?
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Hey Steve,
They also have the Alberta, Hanging Dog, Rusty Coat, Seedling and Nanthailia Red. Does Bussey have any of them on his list?
Yes, they are all on Bussey’s list. Hillside is a brand new one that had not cropped up in any of my research, unless it’s an alias.
Hopefully I’ll be eating some Hillside Limbertwigs in 4 years or so and will report on what they look and taste like.
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Not sure this will all fit here. Email to me from Dan Bussey, former orchard manager at Seedsavers Exchange, Decorah, Iowa:
Hi Steve,
I have about 35 Limbertwigs in the collection here and most are from Steve Kelly and a few others that you’re probably aware of. Henry Morton in his 1986-87 catalog mentioned some of the people where he had obtained most of his Limbertwigs from. I wonder if any of those people are around? I have the 98 I mentioned, listed below and there are two that are probably synonyms of others. I haven’t compared this with Tom’s list recently to see if I missed any. I’ve been interested in the Limbertwigs for some years and have written about them in one of our publications a few years ago. Please mention the Seed Savers Exchange as a source for scionwood. Being able to find rare varieties such as these are part of our mission and I hope we can share information when it can be found. Good luck in your work and I plan to be in touch with you any chance I get if something else comes up!
1.Alberta
2.American
3.Appalachian
4.Ashford
5.Autumn
6.Bee Creek
7.Ben Lomand / Lomand
8.Black Limbertwig
9.Black Limbertwig (Tyson)
10.Black Limbertwig (Watts)
11.Black Newman / Newman
12.Brewster
13.Brushy Mountain
14.Brown
15.Cagle Mountain
16.Camp
17.Cane Creek
18.Caney Fork
19.Carolina
20.Crimson
21.Cumberland
22.Cypert
23.Eaton
24.Edgefield
25.Elberta Black
26.Evan’s
27.Fall
28.Fall Creek
29.Glade
30.Golden
31.Green /aka Large
32.Hanging Dog
33.Hard’s / Peak Fall?
34.Holder’s
35.Howard
36.Improved
37.June
38.Keep Forever
39.Kentucky
40.Kingston
41.Levering
Old-Fashioned /probably the Red
42.Limbertwig Spice
43.Little
44.Maroon
45.Miller’s Sweet
46.Morrison
47.Motlow
48.Mountain
49.Mountain Crest
50.Myer’s Green
51.Myer’s Royal
52.Nanthalia
53.North Carolina
54.Ohio
55.Oregon
56.Park Green
57.Ramsey’s Smoky Mountain
58.Red
59.Red Royal
60.Reed
61.Richard Red
62.Roane Royal
63.Rocky River
64.Rose
65.Royal
66.Ruby
67.Rusty Coat
68.Seedling
69.Sequatchie
70.Shields
71.Short (Short Mountain?)
72.Short Mountain
73.Slatton’s
74.Slemp
75.Smoky
Smoky Mountain (Red Ramsey Strain)- Likely same as Ramsey’s Smoky Mountain
76.Sour
77.Southern
78.Southland
79.Streight
80.Striped
81.Summer / aka Weeping
82.Summer Yellow
83.Sweet
84.Swiss
85.Tate
86.Tellico
87.Tracy
88.Tyson
89.Tyson Yellow
90.Van Royal
91.Victoria
92.Virginia
93.Volunteer
94.Watts
95.Weavers Red
96.White
97.Woods / American
98.Yellow
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Hey Steve
Does Seed Savers offer scion from all these varieties? Or are these ones that he has found mentioned in old catalogs?
Dan said SS has about 35 LT varieties but he didn’t say which ones - the others come only from historical records. SS now has a new orchard manager.
These Limbertwig varieties that once appeared in Rev. Henry Morton’s TN collection are missing and presumed goners:
Autumn Green Limbertwig Bee Creek Limbertwig
Cagle Mountain Limbertwig Camp Limbertwig
Cumberland Limbertwig Eaton Limbertwig
Edgefield Limbertwig Fall Creek Limbertwig
Glade Limbertwig Golden Limbertwig
Howard Limbertwig; June Limbertwig
Mountain Crest Limbertwig Morrison Limbertwig
Park Green Limbertwig Richard Red Limbertwig
Sequatchie Limbertwig Short Mountain Limbertwig
Sour Limbertwig Tate Limbertwig
Tellico Limbertwig Volunteer Limbertwig
Striped Limbertwig Tyson Limbertwig
Smoky Limbertwig (not Smokey Mtn)
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That’s a lot of losses in, what, 30 years or so? It’s a shame that more of Rev. Morton’s collection wasn’t preserved somehow after his death. If only the TOC or SeedSaver’s collection had existed then to conserve them.
Of course, if he offered all of these for sale, some could still exist out there in customer orchards, waiting to be rediscovered.
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Ron Joyner at Big Horse Creek Farm NC has searched diligently for the missing LTs for many years and says he has exhausted all leads known to him.
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Well done Matt. Finally you’ve got it! Will you pinch off the blossoms?
I’ll just let it do it’s own thing.
This year I have had several new grafts that had blooms. I pinched them all off. I figured that they did not need to spend energy pushing blooms or setting fruit.
I accidentally let two varieties set fruit last year. Those grafts have not grown much after that.
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That is a fantastic list of LImbertwig apples. I have been trying to find some of those particular varieties for years. I wish all of these were still available.
What is Dan doing now? I had been communicating with him off and on for a few years but I have not heard from him after he had his apple books published and he left SS.
I found this online about Dan Bussey’s current activity:
Now he splits his time between Ridgeway, Iowa, and Edgerton, and is helping with the Badger Apple Project, an effort by the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance of Baraboo to locate old orchards from homesteads that were taken over by the U.S. Army in 1942 to construct an ammunition facility.
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TY for the update. Interesting new job/hobby for him. He is continuing the " Apple Hunter" work.We definitely need people like him that have the time and determination to look for old apples and apple orchards.