Newton Wonder
Origin and History
Newton Wonder is a traditional, late English cooking apple, valued for its sweetness compared with Bramley. It was found as a chance seedling in the 1870s by a Mr Taylor who spotted it on the roof of The Harding’s Arms public house in King’s Newton, Melbourne, Derbyshire. Its most likely parentage is Dumelow’s Seedling and Blenheim Orange. Messrs Pearson & Co introduced the variety commercially in 1887 and it received an RHS Certificate that same year.
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Fruit
The fruit is large, flat to round, sometimes a little lop-sided. The skin is yellow, three-quarters flushed with brownish red, becoming bright scarlet with crimson stripes and greasy when stored. The lenticels are conspicuous white and russet dots. The stalk is short and stout with a characteristic swelling on the king fruits – the ‘Newton Bump’. The flesh is a creamy-green.
Copyright © Karen Meadows 2018
Picking, Storing and Using
The fruit ripens late and is best picked in October and through November. It will store until March. The acidic flesh cooks quickly to a creamy purée and makes excellent baked apples and mincemeat. Newton Wonder also makes delicious apple juice.
Growth, Flowering and Pollination
Newton Wonder is an attractive, spreading and vigorous tree with a tendency to crop heavily one year, and very lightly the next. 1,840 of fruit was once recorded from a single tree.
If thinning is carried out the king apple will grow huge on the spur. Newton Wonder hates having its limbs cut so avoid pruning them close to the trunk. Its late blossoming and general hardiness makes it an excellent choice for cold locations and frost-pockets. Ideal pollinators include Barnack Beauty, Lady Sudeley and Lord Burghley.