Description
Reverend Wilks was the Secretary of the RHS from 1888 - 1919 and this superb mid-season cooker was named in his honour by Messrs. Veitch of Slough in 1904 when it received an RHS Award of Merit. The very large fruit are a pale primrose yellow, flushed with a delicate pinky-red, which cook to a pale yellow froth with a delicate aromatic flavour. This variety makes a dwarfish tree suitable for small gardens and is very hardy and disease resistant, so does well even in the colder and wetter areas of the country. Crops are extremely heavy, with a slight tendency to be biennial. Partially thin crops in July to avoid this.
"This apple bears the name of Reverend Wilks, vicar of Shirley parish, South London, famed raiser of the Shirley poppies and Secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society, and given that honour by Mr Allgrove, of the Veitch's Langley Nurseries in Slough in 1904. I met it first in Perthshire, transfixed then by the luminous beauty of its smooth, pale skin blushed faintly delicate orange-pink; completely unmarked there, though a splash of milky red stripes is more usual. Beautiful in blossom, it makes a very attractive cordon or espalier, very healthy and suitable for northern gardens in the drier east and wetter west. A beautiful baker, even straight from the tree; cooks down to a sweet lemon yellow purée of delicate flavour without sugar.
Other notes: resistant to scab, mildew, canker, RHS First Class Certificate, 1910, Award of Garden Merit, 1904." © Lin Hawthorne - 'The Northern Pomona'.
For help with choosing the correct rootstock for your needs, please click here A Guide to Rootstocks
For help with choosing the correct size and shape, please click here A Guide to Fruit Tree Shapes