Amber (Kent Bigarreau)
Bigarreau Gaucher
Bradbourne Black...
Is a popular black cherry with a dark flesh, a large heavy cropper and ready for picking at the end of July. It was bred in Kent at East Malling Research Station in the 1950s, named after Bradbourne House, part of the station.
Early Rivers...
Is the earliest black cherry variety to ripen, a good cropper with a decent fruit size. It was raised in 1872 by Bedfordshire nurseryman Thomas River of Sawbridgeworth. The fruits ripen in succession, giving two or even three pickings. Its fruit were among the most popular to be seen on roadside stalls along the A2 to the coast.
Florence...
Is a white cherry variety with a sweet flesh, tending towards pinkish-red. it is a large cherry, late-ripening, hanging well on the tree. This variety was often held back as long as possible because of this quality. At the turn of the 20th century this variety was also known by Bunyard, one of the most well-known fruit breeders, as Wellington.
Frogmore Early
c. 1864
The pitfalls of pomological history are many and various, so perhaps it is not perhaps be too surprising that this attractive yellow cherry should have been wrongly ascribed to William Ingram (it was actually raised by his father Thomas) and relocated to Frogmore Gardens, Hampstead, when it really began life in the rather grander surroundings of the royal gardens at Frogmore, near Windsor Castle. Yet until the history of food is taken as seriously as the history of, say, music or furniture, minor errors like these will continue to be perpetuated. Writing in the 1880s, the generally reliable Robert Hogg recorded that it was raised around 1864 ‘by Mr Thomas Ingram, of the Royal Gardens at Frogmore’ where, Hogg noted, the original tree could still be found. Thomas Ingram was born around 1796, and according to his daughter entered work in the royal gardens at the age of 18. He spent the rest of his life in royal service. By 1816 he was already head gardener to Queen Charlotte at Frogmore, and in 1833 he was appointed overall superintendent of the royal gardens at Windsor, a post he seems to have held almost until his death in 1872.
It must have been a demanding but enjoyable job, especially after 1841, when the vast new Royal Kitchen Gardens were laid out. As the Windsor and Eton Express reported in October 1842:
The gardens are approached be a neat lodge; central in the gardens is the gardener's house, which is now roofed in; it is a very pleasing erection, in the Elizabethan style, and occupies a frontage of forty-nine feet, containing not only every comfort for her Majesty's head gardener, Mr Ingram, but a small suite of rooms for her Majesty's use whenever she may feel disposed to visit the gardens. On each side of the building, east and west, will be a range of forcing houses; behind, on the north side, extending 822 feet in length, are to be erected fruit rooms, store rooms, seed rooms, and houses for the growth of mushrooms, which will be fitted in a very peculiar and novel style, and various other rooms for the convenience of working the gardens.
By 1851 the gardens had cost £45,000, much (though not all) of which was paid for by laying out a new street in London, Kensington Palace Gardens, whose enormous houses now provide ostentatious pieds-à-terres for embassies and Russian billionaires. Thomas’s son, William, was born at Frogmore in 1820, and seems to have worked alongside his father into his twenties, when he left Windsor to become head gardener to the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle. As might be expected of a gardener with such a high-profile job, Thomas was highly regarded, becoming a fellow of the Horticultural Society and winning prizes at its shows for his fruit. If an 1863 reference to him as ‘that indefatigable hybidiser’ is anything to go by he was also, like many of his contemporaries, an avid breeder of new varieties, and we have Thomas to thank for both the Frogmore Early cherry and the Frogmore Prolific apple. As for the regal cherry itself, Frogmore Early owes its reputation to its reliability, bearing heavy crops of sweet yellow cherries streaked and flushed with red. They have a first-rate flavour, though the fruit is rather soft, which makes for delicate handling – something that did not deter late-nineteenth century growers, who planted it on a large scale for the London market.
© Christopher Stocks
Knights Bigarreau...
A white cherry with red splashes - similar in appearance to the Napoleon - but with a slightly sweeter but equally rounded, almost peachy flavour. It's said to come from Knight's Nursery in Herefordshire.
May Duke...
Is a bit of a conundrum. The fact that it became known in France as the Anglaise Hâtive (the English Early) might indicate that it had British origins, but May Duke may equally be a corruption of Medoc, suggesting that it originally came from France. Either way it is an ancient variety, and probably the first of the Dukes, produced by crossing Prunus cerasus and Prunus avium, that became popular in the seventeenth century. It was first mentioned in 1665 by John Rae in his sonorously titled Flora, seu de Florum cultura (Or a Complete Florilege: Furnished with all Requisites Belonging to a Florist), and was still common in the nineteenth century, though by the mid-twentieth century it had fallen out of favour except in Holland, for reasons best known to the Dutch. Actually the Dutch were on to something, for May Duke is a delicious dessert cherry, with juicy, soft, sweet fruit that starts off bright red and deepens to almost (but never entirely) black, usually ripening in late June. It will set some fruit on its own, but it cross-pollinates well with Waterloo, which generally ensures a heavier crop – although May Duke tends to fruit more heavily in some years than others, a slightly irritating habit that may explain its fall from commercial grace.
© Christopher Stocks
Merton Bigarreau...
Is a black cherry with a firm flesh and superb flavour. It is a very heavy cropper ripening early- to mid-season. It was raised by the John Innes Horticultural Institute in 1924 as a cross between Knights Early Black and Napoleon Bigarreau.
Merton Glory...
Is a large cherry with a vermilion flush - almost coral in colour. Raised at John Innes Institute, it is a large fruit, but often soft and therefore difficult to market.
Merton Reward...
Was raised at John Innes Institute and is a large black cherry. It has firm flesh but susceptible to sudden rain showers.
Napoleon
Is a stunning white cherry with splashes of red. The flesh is pale yellow with a crisp bite and a rounded depth of flavour. Not overly sweet.
Noir de Guben
Is a large almost black fruit with streaks of colour. The flesh is very dark and ti remains firm even when fully ripe.
Roundel
A very dark red cherry, this has a shiny skin, with a very dark flesh and is fairly soft and juicy with a deep flavour.
Turkey Heart...
A dark, heart-shaped cherry with a dark flesh - not overly sweet.
Waterloo...
Is a black cherry with firm dark red flesh and a fine flavour. It ripens towards the end of June and is known not to split in wet weather - a common cherry issue. It was bred by Thomas Knight by crossing Bigarreau with May Duke. The cherry first fruited a few days after Napoleon had been defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, hence its prestigious title...
