Sunset apple

History

Sunset was raised about 1918 by G. C. Addy at Ightham in Kent, as a seedling of Cox’s Orange Pippin, and named in 1933¹. The Royal Horticultural Society gave it an Award of Merit in 1960¹, and it holds the society’s Award of Garden Merit².

Its other parent was not recorded¹. In 2018 Ordidge and colleagues, comparing DNA markers across the National Fruit Collection, found Sunset and James Grieve more alike than half-siblings would be. They proposed James Grieve, which they take to be a child of Cox’s Orange Pippin itself, as the missing pollen parent, which would make Sunset inbred³.

The fruit

The 1971 National Apple Register describes a medium-sized, broadly rounded-conical fruit with a yellow ground striped with orange¹. The cream flesh is firm, crisp and fine-textured, with “a good aromatic Cox-like flavour”¹.

At Brogdale, Kent, it reaches 10 per cent flowering about 3 May and is picked in late September¹. The Royal Horticultural Society gives its season of use as October to December⁵, and UK storage recommendations of 1978 and 1986 keep it in a cold air store at 1.5–2.0 °C until January⁴.

Growing

The Royal Horticultural Society describes a compact, spur-bearing tree suited to every trained form, in pollination group 3, with pale pink flowers, and rates it hardy throughout the United Kingdom and northern Europe (H6)⁵.

Uses

Sunset is a dessert apple^1,2,5.

Family tree

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

Sunset United Kingdom, about 1918
- Seed parent Cox's Orange Pippin United Kingdom, about 1825
  - Parent Margil France, probably by 1608
  - Parent Rosemary Russet United Kingdom, by 1831
    - Parent Nonpareil France, by the mid 1500s
- Pollen parent James Grieve United Kingdom, by 1892
  - Parent Potts' Seedling United Kingdom, about 1849
  - Parent Cox's Orange Pippin United Kingdom, about 1825
    - Parent Margil France, probably by 1608
    - Parent Rosemary Russet United Kingdom, by 1831

Sources

Sunset (accession 1979-190), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "Raised in about 1918 by G.C.Addy at Ightham, Kent. Named in 1933"; an Award of Merit from the RHS in 1960; "firm crisp, fine-textured flesh with a good aromatic Cox-like flavour"; a dessert apple; parentage "Cox's Orange Pippin x Unknown"; from the National Apple Register (Smith, 1971), marked b: medium, broad globose conical, a yellow ground with orange stripes, firm, crisp, fine, cream flesh; 10% flowering on 3 May (accession 1979-190); picking in late September (NFC staff, marked a, Brogdale).

RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit. Fruit, vegetables and herbs, Royal Horticultural Society. Supports: Sunset (dessert) on the list of apples holding the Award of Garden Merit.

Genetic analysis of a major international collection of cultivated apple varieties reveals previously unknown historic heteroploid and inbred relationships, M. Ordidge and others, PLoS ONE 13(9): e0202405, 2018. Supports: Sunset (1918) documented as "Cox's Orange Pippin x unknown"; "The similarity of 'James Grieve' and 'Sunset' would suggest a closer relationship than that of a half-sibling", with a proposed "(and inbred) parentage"; James Grieve "potentially an offspring of both 'Pott's Seedling' and 'Cox's Orange Pippin'", and "also the previously unknown paternal parent of 'Sunset'" (Table 2: proposed parentage Cox's Orange Pippin x James Grieve).

Storage of organically produced crops (MAFF project OF0127T), Table 25, p. 144: recommendations for air storage of apples, J. R. Bevan, C. Firth and M. Neicho, Henry Doubleday Research Association, for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; Organic Eprints, December 1997. Supports: Table 25, compiled from Sharples and Stow (1978 and 1986) and Johnson (1997): Sunset stored in air at 1.5–2.0 °C, with "Jan" as the terminate month (1978 and 1986).

Malus domestica 'Sunset' (D), Royal Horticultural Society, plant database. Supports: "A compact dessert apple"; "Pollination group 3, pale pink flowers are followed by fruit that can be used from October to December"; "Compact plant, suitable for all training forms"; spur bearing; hardiness rating H6, "hardy in all of UK and northern Europe".