Apple (Malus) Red Windsor® Cordon M9

A sport of 'Alkmene' also known as 'Red Alkmene', 'Red Windsor' holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit and is a naturally compact, well-behaved apple that trains beautifully. On the dwarfing M9 rootstock, trained as a cordon, it's grown as a single stem at a 45-degree angle, making it an excellent way to fit several different apple varieties into a small space.

Blossom with some useful frost resistance appears in March and April, followed by deep red fruit ready to eat from mid-September. The crisp, juicy flesh has a lovely aromatic, well-balanced sweet-sharp flavour, and the fruit keeps for up to a month. It's a reliable, quick-fruiting variety — you could see your first apples within a year of planting.

'Red Windsor' is partially self-fertile and will crop well alone, though it fruits even better with a pollination partner in the same period (Group 2) or an adjacent group (1 or 3) — worth bearing in mind if you're planting a single cordon rather than a mixed row. It has good resistance to many common diseases, including strong scab resistance, making it a particularly good choice for humid, western parts of the country. Cordons are typically spaced around 75cm–1m apart against a wire support system and need summer pruning to maintain their narrow shape. On M9, trees will need permanent staking or wire support throughout their life, but reward you with an early, compact cropper.

Plant in full sun in moist, well-drained soil. As with all apple varieties, the pips contain small amounts of naturally occurring toxins, so they're best removed if the fruit is being used for cooking with children in mind.

Each tree is hand-selected before dispatch. Available from Pengelly Garden Centre.