Apple (Malus) Scrumptious® M26

A modern British-bred dessert apple and RHS Award of Garden Merit holder, 'Scrumptious' has quickly built a reputation as one of the best garden apples around — thin-skinned, child-friendly, and genuinely delicious. Grafted onto the semi-dwarfing M26 rootstock, it makes a compact, manageable tree reaching around 3m in height and spread, ideal for the average garden.

Pale pink blossom appears in April and May, followed by bright red fruit, sometimes dappled with yellow, with crisp, white flesh. The flavour is complex and fragrant — honeyed and sweet with notes of berry and a hint of liquorice. Harvest from early September, one of the earliest apples of the season, though the fruit doesn't store for long, keeping for around one to two weeks.

'Scrumptious' is self-fertile and will crop reliably alone, though it fruits even better with a pollination partner in the same period (Group 2 or 3, depending on source) or an adjacent group. It's a naturally good pollinator itself, disease-resistant, and bred specifically to cope well with UK garden conditions, including some frost resistance at blossom time. M26 typically needs staking for the first few years while the root system establishes, and trees usually begin cropping within a year or two.

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.