Apple (Malus) Rosette™ M27

A highly coloured sport of 'Discovery', bred by Frank P Matthews in Worcestershire, 'Rosette' is one of the prettiest apples you can grow — bright red skin concealing a striking pink, marbled 'rosette' pattern in the flesh, beautiful sliced into a salad or cheeseboard. Grafted onto the extremely dwarfing M27 rootstock, it makes a very compact tree reaching only around 1.2–1.5m in height and spread — perfect for a large patio container or the smallest of gardens.

Pink and white blossom appears in April and May, followed by richly coloured fruit ready to harvest from August — one of the earliest apples of the season. The crisp, juicy flesh has a light, sweet, summery flavour with berry-like notes, best enjoyed fresh from the tree, as it doesn't keep long and the flavour fades within a week or so.

'Rosette' is partially self-fertile, so fruit set is generally good, though it crops even better with a pollination partner in the same period (Group 2) or an adjacent group (1 or 3). It's a precocious, heavy-cropping variety with good disease resistance, including some tolerance to canker, scab, and powdery mildew. Because M27 is so dwarfing, trees will need permanent staking and benefit from a little extra attention to feeding and watering, especially in a pot, but in return you get an early, manageable cropper ideally suited to patio growing.

Plant in full sun in moist, well-drained soil, and prune each winter to maintain an open, productive shape. 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.