Wellington Johnson James (c. 1861-1945) discovered this apple as natural fruit growing out in his pasture in Charlotte, Maine. He gave scion wood to Rule Furlong sometime probably in the 1940's. Rule gave the wood to his son, Damon Furlong (c. 1908-1993) to graft. Unfortunately it was in June, long past the best time to graft, but according to the story, Rule told Wellington James that, "if anybody can graft these now, it's my boy." Damon Furlong was successful and his two trees are still standing on his family farm, also in Charlotte. The trees are somewhat overgrown in small trees and American cranberry, but they are healthy and producing. It was Damon Furlong who named the fruit, Beauties of Wellington, and he was emphatic about the plural of Beauties. Paul Molyneaux, fisherman and writer from Whiting, introduced me to the apple. According to Paul, when he once referred to an apple as a Beauty of Wellington, Damon told him that each apple is a Beauties of Wellington.

The apples are perfectly symmetrical, round to conic in shape and about 2 3/4" in diameter. The ground color is a light golden yellow, 80-90% overlaid with areas of solid red, deeper red stripes and areas of numerous small red spots. The whole apple is then covered with a mass of small white dots that look like the stars in a winter sky over the areas of deep red. The overall appearance is a brilliant, extremely shiny red. It is a real knock out. The flesh is fine-grained and slightly off white with a faint hint of a pink hue when ripe. On October 4th the apples are very hard and not ready to be picked. They already do have an excellent flavor however. This is definitely a winter apple.

Fedco Seeds, PO Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903
(207) 873-7333 or (207) 430-1106

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