Red Flesh:
Roberts Crab, 14.5 brix, 50-100g- the strongest red colored flesh I've seen. The blooms are pretty too. I haven't found any good descriptions of the flavor, but ARS puts it in the "Acid" category.

Bug Resistant:
PRI 996, 17.3, >400g (though it doesn't look that big in the picture- maybe 150g)- Scab resistant from M. floribunda 821. Resistance to powdery mildew and Plum Curculio. PC resistance looks interesting, though I wonder how resistant it actually is. There is some Jonathon in the history, so it could be tasty...

Interesting Flavor:
Paraquet (also called Paroquet in many places), 16 brix, 100-150g- Weak growing spur bearer. Per Keepers nursery in the UK, it has a raspberry flavor.

Saltcote Pipin, 17.7 brix, 200-250g- A strongly flavored late keeper, which mellows in storage. The Slowfood UK description was pretty interesting- "notes of honey, grapefruit and cinnamon dissolving to ripe melon".

Fenouillet de Ribours, 16.7, 100-150g- flavor sweet, subacid, aniseed perfume; season very late

Lemoen, 18.4 brix, 200-250g- strong lemony acidity: mellows to intense sweet-sharp taste. Very scab resistant per OrangePippin, at least if "Lemoen" is the same as the "Lemoen Pippin".

Uralian Butter, 16.5, 150-200g (those measures are at best, there are 2 other data points with less optimal values)- Supposed to be a late summer apple with a buttery aftertaste.

Sunrise, 14 brix, 150-200g- flesh soft, tender, loose texture, with unique pear-grape flavor. Good eating. Season mid-late. Northern Spy parent. Pretty scab susceptible, per here, so this one may be out.

Duchess Favorite, 13.9 brix, 50-100g- Quite sharp with a strawberry flavour, per Keeper's nursery. ARS describes it as sweet with a pink blush under the skin.

Merton Beauty, 13.8 brix, 150-200g- Appleman.cadescribes it as "a peculiar, strong, flavour described by some as being aniseed (licorice), or by others as having a refreshing, spicy blend of pear and cinnamon." and scab resistant. ARS just calls it "flavor slightly acid, aromatic; eating quality fair;" and lists it as ripening a few weeks earlier. Ellison's Orange x Cox's Orange Pippin

General- high enough brix and reasonably large:
Patul (also called Batul), 16.4 brix, 100-150g- a late-ripening dessert apple from the early 1800's in Transylvania. In Romanian, it translates to "bottom of haystack", which was where they were stored until spring (good until March/April). It used to be a significant eastern European cultivar in the 50's and seems to have at least moderate resistance to fireblight, scab, and powdery mildew.

Finkenwerder Herbstprinz, 14.7 brix, 250-300g-old German variety which has fallen out of favor. It is supposed to be at it's best in April/May, at which point it has shriveled, but improved in flavor. I see some references to it being used for hard cider. One link implied that it has good disease resistance.

Reinette Tres Tardive, 16.7 brix, 100-150g- a very late keeping (July) greenish, partially russeted apple.

Oliver or Senator, 16, 100-150g- Tender crisp, juicy flesh. Most refreshing flavor. From another desc: Nice red apple from Northwestern Arkansas. The yellowish flesh is fine-grained and juicy and often stained with red. Ripens October to November and is an excellent keeper. Healthy, vigorous, and productive per Lee Calhoun.

Gales, 17.6, 100-150g- productive, mid-season, red, good quality. Came from Milo Gibson, so there must be something interesting here...

Lord Hindlip, 16.1 brix, 150-200g- very late, very long keeping, balanced and aromatic. Scab resistant.

Cornish Aromatic (Wakeley), 16.1, 100-150g- Firm, slightly dry. Very scab resistant and a good keeper (until spring).

Shamrock, 18 brix, 150-200g- Green like Granny Smith. Sweet and soft. I didn't find anything on disease resistance, but given that it's parents are Gold Delicious and McIntosh, it can't be great.

Reinette de Cuzy, 16.6, 100-150g- Still sold in France today. Seems to be a late keeper and most descriptions call it perfumed or fragrant.

KAZ 96 08-17, 16.6 brix, 100-150g- No info other than the stats (semi-firm, sweet, non-oxidizing, etc) and that it is an open pollinated seedling of a collected apple which was aromatic and sweet, Free of disease. Heavy codling moth, nice apple.

PRI 672-1, 17.9 brix, >400g(but it says under 2.5"?)- Lots of Golden Delicious in its background. Scab resistant, very crisp, slightly spicy, very full-flavored, juicy to very juicy; very attractive. Good fruit flesh texture and flavor.

PRI 1293-3, 17 brix, >400g- Scab resistance from Russian 12740-7A. very crisp, very juicy, very attractive. Jonathan and some Red Delicious in background.

Lord Lambourne, 14.5 brix, 150-200g- standard British variety. Supposed to be a pretty good, balanced flavor. Grown by Stephen Hayes.

Others of interest (not necessarily from GRIN):
Carter Blue
My Jewel
Vanilla Pippin
Abbondanza
King David
Jefferis
Discovery
Blenheim Orange-Interestingly, I found 2 sources which say it is scab resistant and 2 which say it is very susceptible. All 4 appear to be different sources, not just copy-pastes of each other.

Tony

For plums I'm running with info from Plumhill Farm and trying out a few of the favorite varieties out of over a hundred varieties of J and E plums the owner is growing there for market in Vermont. I think it's in the milder range of Z5.

Growing scores of obscure varieties has its lures but my taste memory isn't all that spectacular so all I need is about 5 or 6 keepers to keep my palate as happy as it can be as far as apples are concerned. Additional varieties are more for my nursery than my own use.

Because stonefruit has to be eaten off the tree and the harvest period is usually not more than about 2 weeks for any given variety, I need to grow many more varieties to keep the high quality and adequate variety coming. Having an excellent nectarine doesn't preclude wanting also to have access to perfect peaches, plums or pluots at any time I go foraging in my orchard.

These fruit descriptions are an endless source of amusement to me. Wine tasters are trained to categorize specific flavors and the descriptions actually have a specific, more universal meaning- with fruit descriptions, not so much- no standardized training and no standards.

The relative acid to sugar balance and taste test results are pretty much the most useable info for me. But if you are looking for unusual aromatics I can see why you look at these descriptions. Cummins described an apple as having a champagne sherbert quality to it. Still trying to figure out what that might be. Maybe that it ferments while ripening. Love how those bubbles tickle my nose!

I once read that you can infuse apples in storage with all kinds of interesting flavors- citrus works well for this. I've always found the bouquet of grocery store to be a bit of a put off.

"My favourite is Ashmead's Kernel - the bite is a nutty snap, exploding with champagne-sherbet juice infused with a lingering scent of orange blossom. Stick me in Pseuds Corner if you like, but try one and you'll see I'm right."

I'm still pretty new to fruit growing (~5 years), so I'm investing some effort into finding good, interesting varieties. Hopefully I can grow the best ones for another 3 or 4 decades. :)

That's a good point about stone-fruit. I've been adding a lot of them too, though not quite as many as apples. So far, I've only been buying trees though, not adding through scionwood. I've grafted a bit from potted trees to standing ones though to get some actual production. Maybe adding some more varieties should be my next project after getting my apple scion order in.

I was thinking Cummins came up with their own descriptions. That's a bit disappointing, really. Especially because England has such a different climate than anything you will find in the U.S. but also because they are relying on newspaper writers to describe their apples.

I think a lot of the Cummins descriptions pull together info from several sources. I think their Ashmead's Kernel is a good example of that, as some of the description definitely didn't come from the paper. Sometimes they even attribute the source, like with their descriptions of Sweet 16 and NY 35.

It would be fun to take a box of various great apples and take a bite out of them, one at at time, and give your best shot at describing it in a way that carried actual information.

Usually I only describe them from memory which can't really work given the sorry state of that apparatus.

I thought the Roberts Crab looked pretty interesting as well, but took it off my list because of the "very high" blight susceptibility. Did you find anything anywhere outside the ARS listing?

MrsG,
They don't ask how many trees you have. They do ask you why you want the scionwood. So, as long as it is a good reason and the variety isn't something you could get from a nursery, I think there is a good chance they will give it to you.

I have a few of the ones you list above. Oliver has yet to fruit but I think its worth trying. Reinette de Cuzy is a large apple with a nice mild and somewhat savory flavor. It does not keep very long though.

Scott

Update,noticed the links. Let me know if you find my jewel.

From my ARS list, my top choices are currently as follows (subject to change, at least until I place my request):
Roberts Crab, PRI 996, Paraquet, Saltcote Pipin, Fenouillet de Ribours, Lemoen, Merton Beauty, Lord Hindlip, and PRI 672-1

On the topic of those later ones you mentioned Bob, Blenheim Orange has not had any scab for me. I get little scab but a tree right next to it, Ginger Gold, had bad scab and Blenheim didn't "catch" the disease at all.

Oh you will have to wait a few more years for Oliver, Bob, it was on a 6-variety tree in a 3' spaced row and I decided to remove Oliver from that tree this winter so the other 5 had a chance of fruiting. My over-exuberant n-way grafting sometimes catches up with me :-) I have a pile of wood I saved and will re-graft to one of my many stumps of removed varieties.

Scott