Excelsior

A red flushed mid-season sharp tasting cooking apple.

Origin: Essex UK, 1921

Pollination: Excelsior is a self-sterile triploid and would require a pollinator to produce a crop.Find pollination partners >

British-grown All our bare-root trees are personally hand-grafted by our Nursery Manager and grown on at our nursery in Kent. We have Defra and Plant Healthy certification. More ...

Excelsior apple trees produced to order

Closing date for custom graft orders: 14 Jul 2025

We do not stock this variety, but we can produce custom-graft trees for you. Trees can be grafted on any of the following rootstocks:

Form	Rootstock	Price
Maiden	M9Dwarfing	£39.00
Maiden	M26Semi-dwarfing	£39.00
Maiden	MM106Semi-vigorous	£39.00
Maiden	MM111Vigorous	£39.00
Maiden	M25Very vigorous	£39.00

Custom graft trees would be supplied in December 2026. More details of our custom grafting service here.

History and description of Excelsior

Introduced 1921. Raised by W P Seabrook and Sons, Chelmsford, Essex. Commercially grown in Essex and Cambridgeshire in the 1930’s but later displaced by the Bramley. Smooth-skinned fruit with a bright red flush. Cream flesh, juicy and brisk. Cooks to a puree and makes a quite strongly-flavoured sauce. Very vigorous tree.

Characteristics of Excelsior apple trees

Use	Culinary
Colour	Flushed
Flavour	Acid
Fruit size	Medium
Picking time	Late Aug
Season of use	Sep-Oct
Tree vigour	Vigorous
Tree habit	Upright-spreading
Fruit-bearing	Spur-bearer
Cropping
Pollination date	11
Pollination group	C
Self-fertility	Self-sterile triploid
Pollinators	Pollination partners