Fruit

MOTHER is also called Gardener's Apple, Queen Anne, and Mother of America, and in England, where it was once grown commercially as a dessert apple, it is most often called American Mother. It originated at Bolton in Worcester County, Massachusetts, about 1844, and resembles Esopus Spitzenburg, somewhat, but ripens earlier, and does not keep as well. Medium in size and long-conical in shape, the smooth, bright, mottled-red over a dark yellow background skin becomes dull after picking. Outside of the hot and humid summer climate of Central Virginia, the color will remain bright. The creamy-yellow flesh is juicy, sweet and acidulous, with a distinctive balsamic flavor. The aroma of the apple has been likened to chick wintergreen. A hardy dependable bearer, it requires cross-pollination, but at the same time will overbear if it is not thinned. It is slow to begin bearing and exhibits some resistance to scab and other apple diseases, but is somewhat susceptible to fireblight. The moderately vigorous tree has greenish-olive bark and shiny, dark, clear-green leaves that are folded and reflexed. Leaves are oval in shape with sharp and regular serrations. The shoots grow particularly straight. Mother ripens in September.