Rediscovered Heritage Apples

PoorSand · 2025-12-06T22:31:05-0600

Rocksnstumps,

Thanks. Very informative. We'll see what I get. As you point out, the name could have easily morphed over the generations.

I do have on my to-do list grafting scions from each of the three ancient apple trees onto some rootstock I have so as to preserve their DNA.

rocksnstumps · 2025-12-07T15:04:08-0600

Dang it Poorsand.

Now you got me going down a bunch of rabbit holes when I tried to figure out what the references were about in my previous post about Bessie apple. One of them is actually a nursery catalog from Waupaca Artic Nursery from 1906. Seems an early nursery business in that part of the state from the 1890s into the early 1900's. My Google-fu led me to some digitized copies of a few catalogs from that era. They sold all sorts of plants but you dig into the apple section and you see all sorts of apple names. Didn't see Bessie but perhaps the other WI seedling apple names lead you off into the Chi-Chi weeds as you try to discern what your 3 trees are. One catalog from 1893 and another from 1915. The one probably has more apple references especially specific WI origins

A couple links