Peasgood's Nonsuch

Grown from a pip sown at Stamford about 1858; DNA shows its parents are Alexander and Golden Noble, not Catshead

Peasgood's Nonsuch, painted by Amanda Almira Newton in 1907 for the US Department of Agriculture. Amanda Almira Newton. U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705. Source; public domain.

Origin: Stamford, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, about 1858
Raised by: Mrs Peasgood
Parentage: Aport × Golden Noble Both parents found from SNP data (Muranty and others, 2020; Larsen and others, 2025), which do not show which bore the seed. They replace the Catshead of the older record (National Fruit Collection; "a seed of the Catshead Codlin", Bunyard, 1920).
Uses: Cooking, Dessert
Picked: September, in Brogdale, Kent
Keeps: Until Christmas (Hogg, 1884)
Skin: Yellow to golden yellow, flushed red on the sunny side and streaked with bright crimson
Flesh: Yellowish, tender and very juicy; a little coarse
Flavour: Agreeably acid, or a little sweet
Ploidy: Diploid
Also called: Gold-Reinette von Peasgood; Goldreinette von Peasgood; Nesravnennoe; Nesravnennoe Pisguda; Non Pareille de Peasgood; Peasgood; Peasgood Nonesuch; Peasgood Nonsuch; Peasgood Parotlanja; Peasgood's Goldreinette; Peasgood's Goldrenette; Peasgood's None Such; Peasgood's Nonesuch; Peasgood's Sondergleichen; Peasgood's Unvergleichlicher; Peasgoodova; Peasgoods Goldrenette; Peasgoods Sondergleichen; Reinette Peasgood Nonsuch; Renet auriu de Peasgood; Renet Pisguda; Renet zolotoi Pisguda; Sans; Sans Pareil de Peasgood; Sans Pareille de Peasgood; Sans Pareille Peasgood; Sanspareille de Peasgood; Sanspareille Peasgood

History

Peasgood’s Nonsuch was raised by Mrs Peasgood at Stamford, Lincolnshire, from a seed sown about 1858^1,4. The Herefordshire Pomona, which credited the apple to Mr Peasgood, said that his wife had sown the pip in a garden pot when she was a child³. Bunyard gave 1858 for the sowing and 1872 for the first fruit, and wrote in 1920 that the original tree was still growing at Stamford⁴. On 18 September 1872 the apple was shown to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Fruit Committee and received a First Class Certificate^1,2; the Pomona adds a similar award at the Crystal Palace show in September 1874³.

Its parentage was recorded as Catshead × unknown¹, and Bunyard wrote that it came from a seed of the Catshead Codlin⁴. Two SNP studies have since identified both its parents: Alexander, also called Aport, an apple of the late eighteenth century, and Golden Noble^5,6. Hillestedæble, an apple found in Danish collections, has the same two parents⁶.

Peasgood’s Nonsuch has been a parent in its turn. The collection lists it as the mother of eight varieties¹, and SNP data confirm two of them, Charles Ross and Rival, as children of Peasgood’s Nonsuch and Cox’s Orange Pippin⁵. The same data make it a parent of Howgate Wonder, with Annie Elizabeth⁵. It holds the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit as a cooking and dessert apple⁷.

The fruit

The fruit is large, round and flattened, and “remarkably regular”⁴. The 1971 National Apple Register gives it as 80 mm wide and 65 mm high, and the collection’s own characterisation as about 95 mm wide and 76 mm high¹. The skin is yellow, overspread with red on the sunny side and copiously streaked with bright crimson^2,3; Bunyard saw only a faint flush and a few broad, broken stripes on a golden-yellow ground⁴. The flesh is yellowish, tender and very juicy, with an agreeable acid flavour^2,3; the collection finds it a little coarse, moderately juicy and a little sweet¹. Hogg likened it to “a very large and highly coloured Nonesuch”².

Hogg said that it kept until Christmas², and Bunyard gave its season as September to November⁴. At Brogdale, Kent, it reaches 10 per cent flowering around 6 May and is picked in mid September¹.

Growing

Bunyard found it vigorous and fertile, making a flat, spreading tree, but “rather liable to canker”⁴. The Pomona reported that the tree grew freely but was said not to bear well until full-grown³. It is diploid⁵.

Uses

Hogg called it “a fine culinary or dessert apple”². The Pomona allowed that its beauty earned it a place on the dessert table, “though its best virtues are culinary”³. Bunyard, who listed it for cooking and exhibition, called it “one of the most beautiful fruits grown” and “first rate for cooking”, and noted that it cooks to a froth⁴.

Where the sources disagree

Who raised it. Mrs Peasgood according to the collection and Bunyard^1,4; Mr Peasgood according to Hogg and the Pomona^2,3.
The certificate. Hogg and the collection date the Royal Horticultural Society’s certificate to 1872^1,2; the Pomona gives 18 September 1878³.
Parents. Catshead in the older record^1,4; Alexander and Golden Noble according to SNP data^5,6.
Flavour. Agreeably acid to Hogg and the Pomona^2,3; a little sweet to the collection¹.

Family tree

Parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, as the entries in the atlas record them.

Peasgood's Nonsuch United Kingdom, about 1858
- Parent Aport Russia, late 18th century
- Parent Golden Noble United Kingdom, by 1803
  - Parent Reinette de Hollande

Offspring in the atlas

Charles Ross × Cox's Orange Pippin; United Kingdom, by 1890
Colonel Yate × Lane's Prince Albert; United Kingdom, 1905
George Carpenter × Reine des Reinettes; United Kingdom, 1902
Houblon × Cox's Orange Pippin; United Kingdom, by 1901
Howgate Wonder × Annie Elizabeth; United Kingdom, 1915-16
Mere de Baia × Margil; Romania, by 1934
Monarch × Dumelow's Seedling; United Kingdom, 1888
Paroquet × Cox's Orange Pippin; United Kingdom, by 1897
Prince George × Lane's Prince Albert; United Kingdom
Renown × Cox's Orange Pippin; United Kingdom, by 1908
Reverend W. Wilks × Ribston Pippin; United Kingdom, by 1904
Rival × Cox's Orange Pippin; United Kingdom, by 1900

23 varieties in the atlas descend from Peasgood's Nonsuch.

Where Peasgood's Nonsuch came from. The lines lead to its parents: Golden Noble (United Kingdom).

Sources

Peasgood's Nonsuch (accession 2000-075), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "Raised by Mrs Peasgood at Stamford, Lincolnshire, England from seed sown in about 1858"; "Received First Class Certificate from Royal Horticultural Society in 1872"; "a little coarse textured, moderately juicy and a little sweet. Cooks well"; parentage "Catshead x Unknown"; listed as mother of eight varieties, among them Charles Ross and Rival, and father of two; the sport Crimson Peasgood; synonyms including Peasgood's Nonesuch, Sans Pareille de Peasgood and Goldreinette von Peasgood; from the National Apple Register (Smith, 1971), a large, flat fruit 80 mm wide and 65 mm high, greenish yellow with carmine flush and stripes, yellowish white flesh; in the collection's own characterisation 95.35 mm wide and 75.71 mm high; 10% flowering on 6 May and picking in mid September at Brogdale; a culinary apple.
The Fruit Manual, 5th ed., p. 170: Peasgood's Nonesuch, Robert Hogg, Journal of Horticulture Office, Internet Archive, 1884. Supports: large, roundish, somewhat oblate and very handsome; skin yellow, overspread on the sunny side with red and copiously streaked with bright darker crimson; flesh yellowish, tender, very juicy, with an agreeable acid flavour; "A fine culinary or dessert apple. It is like a very large and highly coloured Nonesuch, and keeps till Christmas"; presented before the Fruit Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society on "September 18th, 1872" and awarded a first-class certificate; raised by Mr Peasgood of Stamford.
The Herefordshire Pomona, vol. II, plate LXI, no. 8: Peasgood's Nonesuch, Robert Hogg and H. G. Bull (eds), Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, Internet Archive, 1876–1885. Supports: raised by Mr Peasgood of Stamford "from a pip sown in a garden pot by his wife, when a child"; first presented before the Royal Horticultural Society's Fruit Committee on "September 18th, 1878" and awarded a first-class certificate; a similar distinction at the Crystal Palace Show "in September, 1874"; skin yellow, overspread on the sunny side with red and copiously streaked with crimson; flesh yellowish, tender, very juicy, agreeably acid; its beauty gives it a place on the dessert table, "though its best virtues are culinary"; the tree grows freely but "is said not to bear well, until it has attained its full growth".
A Handbook of Hardy Fruits, vol. I, p. 102: Peasgood's Nonsuch, E. A. Bunyard, John Murray, Internet Archive, 1920. Supports: French name Sanspareille de Peasgood; "Culinary and exhibition, September to November"; large, round flattened, "remarkably regular"; golden-yellow with faint flush and a few broad broken stripes; flesh tender, yellowish, of pleasant flavour, "cooks frothily"; growth vigorous, fertile; "raised by Mrs. Peasgood, of Stamford, in 1858, from a seed of the Catshead Codlin. First fruited in 1872. The original tree is still growing at Stamford"; "One of the most beautiful fruits grown; first rate for cooking"; "a flat spreading tree"; "Rather liable to canker".
Using whole-genome SNP data to reconstruct a large multi-generation pedigree in apple germplasm, H. Muranty and others, BMC Plant Biology 20: 2, with Additional files 1 and 3 (Tables S1 and S3), 2020. Supports: Peasgood's Nonsuch inferred from SNP data as the offspring of Alexander and Golden Noble (15 Mendelian errors, against a threshold of 600), the recorded parent Catshead not confirmed (Table S3); Alexander, synonyms Aport or Aporta, which "originated in the late eighteenth century" (text); Charles Ross and Rival confirmed as children of Peasgood's Nonsuch and Cox's Orange Pippin, and Howgate Wonder inferred as a child of Annie Elizabeth and Peasgood's Nonsuch (Table S3); Peasgood's Nonsuch diploid (Table S1).
Cultivar fingerprinting and SNP-based pedigree reconstruction in Danish heritage apple cultivars utilizing genotypic data from multiple germplasm collections in the world, B. Larsen and others, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 72: 2397, supplementary Table S5, 2025. Supports: Peasgood's Nonsuch with SNP-confirmed parents Alexander and Golden Noble; Hillestedæble, a genotype found in this Danish study, with the same two parents (Table S5).
RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit. Fruit, vegetables and herbs, Royal Horticultural Society. Supports: 'Peasgood's Nonsuch' (culinary / dessert) among the apples on the list of plants holding the Award of Garden Merit.