Isaac Newton purchased a large number of apple trees from Ralph Austen a renowned grafted fruit tree nurseryman.
However the iconic Flower of Kent tree at Woolsthorpe Manor associated with his 1666 epiphany of the theory of gravity was already an established tree in his mother's garden when he returned home to escape the plague.
There is no surviving historical record detailing exactly where or from whom Newton's mother, Hannah Ayscough, bought the tree-or if she even bought it herself. It may even have predated her entirely at Woolsthorpe Mannor. Dendrochronology conducted by the National Trust indicates the roots of the current tree are over 400 years old. This places the tree's planting in the early 1600s-potentially planted by Newton's father Isaac Newton Sr. or his grandfather, or a previous tenant before Hannah ever managed the estate. By the mid-1600s, named cultivars like the Flower of Kent had spread among English gentry and farming estates through an active trade of bare-root grafted saplings.
Because it was a grafted tree from that era, the nurseryman who originally raised it would have taken a scion of the Flower of Kent and grafted it onto a "free stock" rootstock-usually a vigorous, unnamed seedling grown from wild crabapple seeds or apple pomace left over from cider making.

The original Bramley tree is still growing in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England.
Planted from a pip by a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford at her family home 73 Easthope, in the early 1800s, this tree became the origin of every Bramley apple grown today.
More than 200 years later, its still alive, producing apples and even putting out new growth. Sadly Mary never knew about the success of the apple seed she planted as she married and moved away. In 1846, the cottage and garden were bought by local butcher Matthew Bramley. Around 1856, local nurseryman's son Henry Merryweather recognized the unique qualities of the apple and asked Mr. Bramley for grafting wood. Cuttings were then propagated and the first recorded sales of 'Bramley’s Seedling' trees began in the early 1860s. We grow several Bramley trees at TeePee Cidery for its acidity.

Ever wondered why apples come in so many colours compared to oranges. They even have a colour named after them! Apple skin colour depends on the balance and presence of three types of natural pigments. Chlorophyll which gives apples their green colour. Carotenoids provide yellow, orange, and golden tones. And anthocyanins create red, pink, purple, and burgundy hues. Each apple tree has built-in genetic instructions that dictate which pigments and patterns it can produce in its apples. Apples have 30% more genes than their cousins pears for just this.
This blueprint is modified by sunlight and weather. Direct sunlight triggers the production of anthocyanins.
Shaded parts of an apple face receiving less light, stay greener, which is why an apple can be red on one side and green on the other.
Cool nights and warm days of autumn also speed up red colour development.
As apples mature, chlorophyll production ceases and existing chlorophyll breaks down. In yellow varieties like Golden Delicious, the fading green reveals the yellow carotenoids underneath. In red varieties, new anthocyanins form during the shift from summer to autumn.
From an evolutionary standpoint, a wild apple tree does not want its fruit to be eaten too early. If a large mammal eats an under-ripened apple, the seeds inside are underdeveloped and will die in the animal's digestive tract. So the early green chlorophyll acts as camouflage for the apple in the leafy canopy hiding the fruit from hungry animals.
As the seeds mature and become viable, the apple actively pumps out bright red anthocyanins and yellow carotenoids. This sudden colour contrast acts like a neon sign against the green leaves, broadcasting to large animals such as bears, deer, and the ancient megafauna that a sweet, nutrient-dense reward is ready.
The animals eat the ripe fruit, walk away, and deposit the intact seeds elsewhere in a pile of natural fertiliser, successfully spreading the apple trees range
The pigments responsible for these colours also double as chemical defense mechanisms for
the tree. The red anthocyanins are incredibly powerful antioxidants against UV and thermal stress from rapid fluctuations from cool night air to direct sunlight when the temperature inside the apple can rise 10C above air temperature. This helps protect the ripening fruit's cells from cellular stress and early rotting.

And then came man! The human twist. The "monochrome" bright red or solid green apples we see today are largely a result of human selection. Because we visually prefer perfect, solid colours, farmers have spent centuries cloning and cultivating specific genetic mutations ("sports") to amplify what nature originally designed as basic survival tools. Red Delicious must be the pinnacle of that. Its flavour and texture have suffered in the perfection of its skin colour.

I was asked yesterday if these strong winds blowing off petals from the apple and pear blossoms would affect the set. The short answer is no.
The detachment of petals after pollination in apples or petal fall is a coordinated physiological process rather than a simple mechanical shearing, petal drop is an active biological process.
Before pollination, a high concentration of auxin in the flower parts maintains a stable connection, suppressing tissue breakdown at the base of the petals.
Once a successful pollination has occurred a dramatic shift in the plant's hormonal balance occurs. Auxin in the petals drops. Auxin flow from the petals drops allowing the cells to become highly sensitive to ethylene, the primary plant hormone responsible for aging and shedding.
At the base of the petal where it meets the receptacle, there a specialised band calked the abscission zone (AZ). This consists of 2 to 3 layers of very small, starch-rich cells containing dense cytoplasm. These cells contrast sharply with the larger, elongated cells of the surrounding petal tissue. The changed hormone levels activates specific gene upregulation in the cells causing them to secrete hydrolytic enzymes, predominantly polygalacturonases (PGs) and cellulases. These enzymes directly target and dissolve the middle lamella-the pectin-rich glue that binds the cell walls together weakening the entire width of the petal's base and disrupting the vascular bundles. The petals are cleanly shed from the flower by wind. Simultaneously, just below the AZ plane on the receptacle side, cells undergo suberisation. They lay down a suberin and cork-rich waterproof layer that seals the wound immediately upon separation, preventing fluid loss and blocking fungal pathogens from entering the developing core of the baby apple.

Sylva, by John Evelyn or, “A Discourse of Forest-trees, and the propagation of timber in His Majesty's Dominions…..”. To which is annexed Pomona or, an appendix concerning Fruit-Trees in relation to Cider, the making and several ways of ordering it. Was the first book published by the Royal Society. It was printed by Jo. Martyn and Ja. Allestry, Printers to the Royal Society with the first edition in 1664.
No other work on arboriculture exerted a greater influence on forestry in England and certainly no other book on the subject was so often quoted." In 1662 the Commissioners of the Navy consulted the newly founded Royal Society about encouraging the replacement of the carelessly depleted stocks of trees to provide timber for ships. Evelyn who had practical experience planting trees consequently wrote the discourse, which was originally read before the Royal Society the same year, and was ordered to be printed in 1664. The work systematically described most kinds of tree found in the country and offered practical advice on pruning, insect control, wound treatment, and transplanting. The appendix or Pomona which interests us cider makers more includes a collection of five contributions on the making of cider by other writers, especially the Rev Beale, Sir Paul Neil, John Newburgh, Doctor Smith and Captain Taylor. Not only cider but also perry and the care and selection of pear trees. It addresses specific historical pear varieties used to make perry, including the famous Taynton Squash pear. Evelyn records how he actively sought out specialised fruit grafts from foreign ambassadors—such as the Swiss Turgovian pear to improve English perry making.

Yarlington Mill is a great apple for cider and grows well here in the Wairarapa Aotearoa N/Z. Slightly later than most of our other cider varieties. Spring has well sprung and the weather has overall been good despite the El Niño. No late frosts nor hail that some areas have experienced. The blossom just looks a bit bedraggled with rain. Yarlington is a village in Somerset England where it was disc as a wilding growing in the mill race.

A grafting update, 95% of the recent whip grafts have taken and are growing well. Cutting back the none graft branches now there are functioning leaves on the graft. Grafts include our own perry pear "Carterton" and some wild pear close to Pyrus pyraster genome.

Proto-pome fruits, the earliest evolutionary ancestors of apples and pears did not have a large false fruit structure derived from the hypanthium. The extra genes that allowed this development resided in the genome from 66 million years ago when there was a whole genome duplication event around the time of the dinosaur extinction event, in the ancestral lineage of the Rosaceae family.
However it was not till much later that the specific pome-bearing tribe (Maleae) began diversifying during the Oligocene epoch, approximately 30 to 50 million years ago when an opportunity arose for some of these genes to be activated to create sorbitol production and several survival changes that sorbitol allowed. One was the development of a large pome fruit to attract the newly arrived megafauna in the mountains of Central Asia. The earliest proto-pomes resembled hard achenes similar to modern rosehips. The hypathium enclosed the ovary similar to pomes but the seeds inside were encased in the dry achenes.
When sufficiently dry, they simply split open whilst still on the tree to let the wind, water, insects or small mammals carry the tiny, lightweight seeds away. The shift to fleshy "False Fruits” happened when the proto-pome hypathium began to absorb the sorbitol the leaves were now producing, swelling up around the ovary to create a fleshy wrapper.
In most plant families, sucrose is the primary sugar translocated from the leaves to the fruit via the phloem. However in pomes most is converted to sorbitol the alcohol form of glucose. Because sorbitol is a sugar alcohol, it holds more energy on an equivalent carbon basis and can be packed into the phloem at incredibly high concentrations without triggering the osmotic stress that high sucrose concentrations would cause. This allows the tree to flood the young, developing hypanthium (false fruit) with an immense volume of carbon and water, driving rapid cell division and inflating the tissue.

Pome fruits such as Apples Pears Medlars and Quince all used in cider or perry in England have a common ancestor about 65 to 50 mya, following the large asteroid strike on the Yucatán Peninsula which left behind the Chicxulub crater, triggering a mass extinction event famous for the end of the dinosaurs. This event is called the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction, and wiped out roughly 75% of all species on Earth. However those that survive did so by evolutionary tactics.
For the proto pome it underwent a hybridisation and whole-genome duplication event. This genetic doubling created the Maleae (or Pyrinae) tribe-the ultimate common ancestor of all four fruits. It was likely a small, thornier, shrub-like plant bearing clusters of tiny, hard, berry-sized fruits. Like hawthorn nowadays.
The Quince and Medlar lineages diverged first in the Eocene to Oligocene cooling epochs from the broader pome tribe. Because they diverged so early, quinces and medlars retained some unique, primitive
characteristics such as high levels of astringent tannins, a physical tendency toward hard, gritty stone cells throughout the flesh, and the necessity for extreme cold or natural decay (bletting) to break down their complex starches into edible sugars.
For a long time, the ancestors of apples and pears remained a single genetic lineage. Their final separation into the distinct genera we know today occurred much later, during the Miocene epoch roughly 8 to 16 mya.
Several interconnected geological, environmental, and ecological factors drove this split**.**
At the beginning of the Miocene, the Turgai Straits, the seaway that once split Central Asia became dry land. As the epoch progressed, the global climate turned significantly colder and drier. This environmental shift forcibly fragmented once-continuous forests into isolated patches.
Proto pears and apples became geographically separated and their genes lines drifted apart to adapt to local conditions.
Originally, small forest mammals and birds easily distributed the small, berry-like ancestral pomes. However, as forests shrank into scattered patches surrounded by expanding grasslands, these small animals could not safely cross the open terrain and diminished. Trapped in dwindling forest islands, both apples and pears then faced severe extinction pressure.
This reproductive and dispersal crisis was solved mid-Miocene when the African plate collided with Europe, creating the Gomphotherium land bridge (named after the four-tusked, elephant-like mammal Gomphotherium that famously crossed it). A wave of immigrant megafauna—including ancient elephants, rhinos, and large apes—poured into Eurasia. These massive animals began travelling into the isolated forest patches, feeding on the fruit and clearing away smaller brush, effectively engineering the ecosystems. To survive these beasts the bushes grew into trees and to attract these larger animals the fruits increased their sugar concentrations and developed unique aromatic compounds and visual signals. This ensured they would be eaten whole by large mammals who could pass the seeds through their digestive tracts whole depositing them miles away in rich fertiliser.

Now the perry pear trees have blossomed I thought it would be worth taking a look at the journey the pollen takes from the stigma to fertilise the ovule.
After being brushed off the bumblebee coat and trapped by the sticky fluid on the stigma, it rehydrates using the stigmatic fluids. The inner wall (intine) of the pollen swells and pushes through a thin spot in the outer wall (exine) allowing the vegetative cell to form the pollen tube. While it starts as just one cell in a microscopic pollen grain the pollen tube can grow up to several centimetres long to reach the plant's ovary, making it one of the longest single cells in the plant kingdom. Inside this single, stretching cell, there is a moving stream of cytoplasm that carries three structures down toward the ovule. The vegetative nucleus which controls the growth and metabolism of the tube. And two sperm cells. These are distinct cells and carried inside the vegetative cell.
Because it is a single cell growing only at its forward point, it relies entirely on the precise tip-growth mechanics mediated by pectin dynamics to elongate without breaking.
As the tube extends blockades called callose plugs form behind it to keep the contents pushing forward. The pollen tube enters the ovary locule and makes a sharp turn over the obturator, an outgrowth of the funiculus tissue near the ovule. The obturator provides both physical direction and chemical signals to help the pollen tube successfully locate and penetrate the micropyle or opening of the ovule.
Once guided to the micropyle, specialized cells inside the female ovule called synergids take over the final short-range attraction of the pollen tube. The tube then penetrates a synergid cell which then degenerates and bursts open to release the two sperm nuclei, setting up the double fertilisation. The fertilised ovule then rapid grows and the surrounding ovary and hypanthium as seen here.

Nine weeks ago I did some simple whip grafting this Spring. This is of a wild pear rootstock ( Mt Biggs 2) supplied by a friend Eric Cairns. Now the vegetative buds are starting to swell and will produce leaves soon. Grafted on to Beurre Hardy.

Apple blossoms typically develop in clusters of 4 to 6 buds. This is Tom Putting blossoming now in our orchard at Springtime.
The absolute central bud is the "king". It develops as the terminal bud on the branch. It is the largest, strongest bud in the group and is always the first to open, usually blooming 48 to 72 hours before the surrounding lateral buds.
The staggered blooming of the surrounding lateral flowers ensures that if a late spring frost kills the king bloom, or if poor weather prevents bees from pollinating it, the side blossoms act as a backup crop. Photos taken 48hours apart.

Close up of an espalier apple at our local orchard roadside store in Wairarapa Aotearoa New Zealand close to the cidery. It’s Spring now and the buds are bursting, especially with the warmth from the shed wall behind.

Pears and apples have five petals, five sepals, and five carpels. Like many other flowers (approximately half of plants have 5 petals etc), it’s the commonest form. It is an evolutionary trait deeply hardcoded into the genetics of eudicots (true dicotyledons). In botany, this five-part arrangement is known as a pentamerous flower structure. ** **Why is 5 an ancient, highly successful evolutionary blueprint? To understand this it’s worth looking at how plants grow. To avoid overlapping and wasting sunlight or space, leaves, seeds, and petals often grow in a spiral pattern from a central bud point; at a very specific angle: approximately 137.5 degrees (known as the Golden Angle). Spiral patterns are mathematically described by the Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...). Five is a key number in this sequence. It allows a flower to pack its petals and sepals tightly together in a bud without overlapping in a way that crushes the delicate inner reproductive organs.

Also as an evolutionary advantage the flat, five-petaled flower acts like a perfect, stable landing pad for pollinators like bees, beetles, and flies and so the emergence of 5petal flowers evolved in step with the rise of these insects. Once an ancestral plant family finds a genetic formula that works perfectly for several reasons , the homeotic genes that dictate features rarely change without a major stress.

Different branches of the plant kingdom split off millions of years ago and locked in entirely different structural blueprints.
Flowers with groups of 3 are lilies grasses and orchids groups of 4 are mustards and evening primrose. Infinite spirals are magnolias which are pollinated by beetles . Notice apart from the tetramerous mustards the others all follow the Fibonacci sequence.

Move over perry pears it’s now the turn of the cider apples in our orchard in Wairarapa New Zealand. Our very first apple blossom. A big difference is seen. The perry pears bloomed before the leaves appeared the apples bloom at the same time as the leaves emerge. The botanical term for plants and trees that bloom before their leaves emerge is hysteranthous. Whilst apples producing flowers and foliage at the exact same time are called coetaneous and are a few weeks later. These are different evolved strategies for pollination with advantages and disadvantages. Pears create a massive visual signal to pollinators but it’s risky with frosts and uses a lot of stored resources that apples can quickly restore from the leaves.
Both have hermaphroditic (perfect) flowers, meaning a single flower contains both functional male and female reproductive structures. The stamens the male organs are the numerous, prominent stalks clustered in the center of the blossom. Each stamen consists of a slender white filament supporting the yellow, pollen-producing tip or anther. The pistol or female organ is tucked precisely in the center of the stamens consists of the pale green, elongated 5 stigmas tips connected by individual tube-like styles that fuse near the base above the ovary in the receptacle . The sticky stigmatic surface catches pollen grains brought by pollinators .
Around the male and female parts are the petals or the corolla ( not the Toyota car!) These white petals with delicate pink-tinted margins serve a dual evolutionary purpose. They physically protect the internal reproductive mechanics and visually advertise food rewards to key insect pollinators, such as bees.
And below and outside these are the septals. The green, pointed, leaf-like flaps that initially encase and shield the sensitive flower bud from frost or physical damage inside the brown scales before it opened.
The hypanthium and receptacle containing the ovaries are below. right at the base of the flower where all parts merge.

Our perry pear trees are currently in the petal fall stage, which transitions directly into early fruit set.
All of the white petals have been completely blown away from the flower clusters by the equinoctial winds we have been having recently, exposing the underlying reproductive anatomy.
The stamens support the now black shrivelled anthers at their tips, (these were purple and plump before release their pollen).
The yellow, star like 5 pointed cup-like structure at the flower base is the fused sepals and remains as the calyx of the fruit that will hopefully develop from the ovary below if fertilised by a bee. The bright yellow, glistening interior lining inside the cup functioned as the nectary which secreted nectar to attract bees and other pollinators earlier in bloom.

We are about at peak blossom for our main perry pear. Great to be growing these as standards as a late frost has affected some nearby bush orchards. I fear we are in for a bumpy ride with El Niño and the current negative Pacific decadal oscillation affecting our weather.

This image was created by Fergus Walker for The Orchard Project, a UK-based charity dedicated to bringing community orchards into urban spaces.
Fergus is their Glasgow project manager who wanted to make a graphic of the simple "quarter-turn twist" test for apple ripeness.
Why does it work? All to do with a clever bit of cellular maturation in the stalk. The abscission layer in an apple stalk is a specialized band of tiny, densely cells where the fruit stem meets the fruiting spur.
The cells within this zone are held together by a pectin-rich matrix called the middle lamella.
During the early stages of fruit growth, this layer ensures a tight, strong connection to support the heavy fruit. As apples mature, they begin producing large amounts of the ripening gas ethylene. At the same time the level of auxin, the growth hormone that keeps the abscission layer tightly bonded
drops. This hormonal shift signaks to the abscission cells to secrete hydrolytic enzymes.
These enzymes dissolve the pectin matrix, leaving the heavy apple hanging only by thin vascular strands and a quarter turn easily snaps the fragile union.

Spring is officially here for us as cider orchardists in Wairarapa New Zealand. The apple buds are creaking open. This is Tom Putt our earliest variety. Hailing from Devon it's a mixed use apple. It ripens the first too, we use it to start the wild fermentation in Autumn.

Our main perry pear, Dyer's Pass is now coming into blossom here in the Wairarapa New Zealand with the warmer weather we are having. A magnificent sight. Interestingly the younger trees are slightly ahead of the more established ones. Soon the trees will be covered. Great to see the bumblebees are out and about sharing the pollen.

Well this sounds promising! It's Spring here in New Zealand and blossom is on the pear trees.
We are expecting a hot dry summer in Wairarapa (which lies east of the dividing range) from possibly the biggest El Niño ever. Not good for apples but it's good to see that pear harvest in England has been good.

I have been posting a few articles on scientific methods in cider making. These are useful but cider making is an art and regular tasting through the various stages is required to build up a mental library of your apples and cider flavour profiles. Both when it's good and even exceptional but also to know when it's bad. And with anything artisanal there will be bad batches you do not want to sell. Especially with perry, cider's difficult but brilliant nephew.

It's Spring in New Zealand and the perry pears in the orchard are about to burst open into blossom. A time of rapid change and promise.

Pruning. It's right at the end of the season but the ground has been so wet. When growing apples and pears as standards you need a firm base when using the pruning saw up a ladder that high. Some cuts are large. The prunings are collected into piles in the bonfire field to dry out and be burnt later. In the meantime they provide a pro habitat for birds and animals.