An ancient tree dating back from the early 17th Century. Ashmeads Kernal is a very hardy tree with beautiful pink blossom and a delicious and unusual flavoured fruit. Crisp and nutty with a sparkling sherbet flavour, both sweet and sharp with an essence of orange blossom. The apples are quite small and coloured yellow and green with a firm and juicy flesh. The fruit keeps well into the new year, retaining sweetness as it ages. Wonderfully versatile the apples can also be cooked and they make a marvellous cider. It also has the advantage of good autumn foliage.

Like many old fashioned apples, this tree is not a regular cropper and often starts cropping later than other trees but it is a beautiful tree with delicious apples. It is a special tree for those that are interested. A good year can give a bumper crop and on a bad year with a cold spring the harvest can be disappointing. It is reasonably resistant to disease. Apples trees are a wonderful source of food and shelter for birds, bees and other wildlife.

In spring weed, mulch and spray with a seaweed solution. Summer, thin fruit, and prune if necessary. In autumn pick the fruit and come winter give a good prune to remove any dead or diseased wood, remove mummified fruit and give the tree a good treat of copious compost.

Do not plant in water logged position or on the site of an old apple tree.

Symbolism: Apple, domestica
The apple has very similar associations with the quince. From Adam and Eve to the present day the apple has long been a symbol of love and romance, together with peace and happiness. In some legends, apples were the food of the gods and in the Celtic tradition apples were said to grow in Paradise.

A traditional tree to plant on the birth of a boy.