From the Living Museum
Cornish Gilliflower
- Origin
- Cottage garden near Truro, Cornwall, England
- Era
- Found c. 1800; introduced 1813
- Type / use
- Dessert
History & Stories
Classic Cornish dessert apple with conical shape, heavy russet, and red flush. Firm, aromatic flesh with distinctive spicy or floral notes. Unique regional character from the far southwest of England; one of the better Cornish heirlooms still available.
Folklore & Name
Classic Cornish dessert apple. ‘Gilliflower’ is an old name for clove-scented or spicy aromatic apples (from the gillyflower/clove pink). Regional West Country heritage.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Cornish Gilliflower was found in a cottage garden in Cornwall. The UK National Fruit Collection says it was "found in a cottage garden near Truro" and "introduced by Sir Christopher Hawkins in 1813" 1. Robert Hogg's Fruit Manual (1884) agrees: Hawkins brought it to the notice of the Horticultural Society of London in 1813, and it had been "discovered about the beginning of the present century, growing in a cottager's garden near Truro." Hogg ranked it "one of our best dessert apples, remarkable for its rich and aromatic flavour," but noted the tree was "not an abundant bearer," because it fruits at the tips of the shoots 2.
What we think: stories & traditions
What's a gilliflower? Hogg explains that "gilliflower" comes from the French word for a clove, so a gilliflower is a flower with a clove scent, such as the clove pink. Chaucer wrote it as "Gylofre." Hogg was firm that the spelling "July-flower" is "only a corruption" 2. The name probably points to the apple's perfume. That is our inference, but it fits how the word was used for flowers.
A cottager's tree. Like many famous apples, this one owes its survival to someone of means noticing a tree in a working family's garden. We don't know the cottager's name.
Sources
- UK National Fruit Collection, "Cornish Gilliflower." www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=1265&fruit=apple
- Robert Hogg, The Fruit Manual, 5th ed. (London, 1884), "Cornish Gilliflower," p. 60. archive.org/details/fruitmanualguide00hoggrich/page/60
Curious about Cornish Gilliflower?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.