Orleans Reinette Apple Trees

Malus domestica Orleans Reinette

It is such a romantic name for a super eating apple. Orleans Reinette apples are flat, looking like those wonderful doughnut peaches, and red with a little russeting. Ripening late in the season, they look as delicious as they taste: aromatic, sweet but with enough tartness to stop the taste cloying. Some compare it with a Blenheim Orange, but we think its flavour is superior. The yellowish flesh is crisp but only slightly juicy with a fine texture. The blossom is pretty and tends to last longer than on most apple trees.
The tree is a fairly light cropper, which makes it unpopular with farmers but is often ideal for the needs of the home grower - a large yield isn't much use if you can eat it all!

Browse our range of apple trees or see the full variety of fruit trees.

Growing Guide

Known for their flavour when fresh, they also make a great baking apple because they do not collapse when cooked and it retains its very special taste. On top of that, it can also be used to make cider. Unusually for a late apple, it does not store particularly well, only for about three weeks.

As a triploid tree it does need a pollinating partner to ensure that it crops as well as it can. Any group E or D apple will do but a good combination might be to have an eater like Ellisons Orange which crops in September and a cooker like Bramley which cooks to a fluffy purée. Finally, make use of that extended flowering period! Plant Orleans Reinette somewhere visible from the house so you can marvel at all that blossom.

Features

• Height: Bush to 3 m. Trees to 4.5m
• Use: Eating/cooking/cider
• Pruning: Spur bearer
• Pollination: Self-sterile triploid (cannot pollinate other trees)
• Picking: mid-Oct
• Apple colour: Red over yellow skin
• Pollination Group: Group E
• Storage: 1-2 weeks