Common Ground started it all and we now have events to celebrate our apples, like Apple Day. 'But now there is so much interest in English apples and orchards. 'When I did it in the first place, no-one knew about the apples. Rosie has noticed a big change since the original book was issued, and it is good news for the future of England's depleted apple orchards. All the paintings were done on Hot Pressed watercolour paper. The new book has been completely re-designed and also has a new name - The Apple Book. 'There are 22 more varieties in the new book, including two local ones which Kevin Croucher at Thornhayes Nursery near Exeter told me about - Don's Delight and Tidicombe Seedling.'

Rosie always has a Tom Putt tree in her garden 'I got in touch with Wisley again and asked them to draw up an additional list. 'It was Diana Gilding at RHS Rosemoor in north Devon who was very keen to get it re-published.'ĭiana spoke to the publishers, Francis Lincoln, who then got in touch with Rosie.īefore she knew it, she was researching apples again. It took quite a lot of persuading from friends that she should update The English Apple. 'The apples is going back to what I used to paint because I now do very large flower paintings.' Twenty-two years later, however, and Rosie - who moved to Devon in the 1970s - had moved on to other things.

So Rosie went to RHS Wisley in Surrey, where they held the National Apple Collection, where she found many of the apples featured in her book. 'But that became too complicated and I couldn't be sure that the apples were what we thought they were.' The Tidicombe Seedling is another Devon varietyīeautifully illustrated, it followed years of research which entailed Rosie visiting people's gardens and farms to investigate their apples.

The Apple Book by Rosie Sanders