Bay View Heritage Orchard & Gardens

06/13/2025

Good morning. We were hoping to do another pop-up tree sale on Saturday the 14th at our Woodward Street location but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to physically pull it off (a few minor aches this week) so we did decide on Saturday the 21st.

What I did want to do was comment on the winter that we had this past year. In terms of temperature and snowfall for us, it was great! Who wants to live in Wisconsin when it’s -15° and who wants to shovel snow after we get just got dumped on with 12 more inches? Sure, last winter brought us an easy commute to work, for the most part temperatures that allowed us to clean our cars and garages, plus not create large piles of snow in parking lots or on street corners. Although we’d rather have winters like this one, perennial gardens and our trees (designed to be grown in pots) can easily withstand temperatures in the negative single digits with 12 inches or more of snow on top without problems. Remember to keep your trees outside in a protected area and blow your snow over them this coming winter. We’ve been reading over and over in gardening forums this spring, how many established perennial plants have died out. Many of my trees suffered root damage from the constant freezing and thawing, and were very, very slow to bud out this year, if at all.

What was horrible for them was the lack of snow, followed again by thawing and then freezing and then another cold stretch. And repeat this four or five times. I honestly lost more trees this year than all other years combined. Fortunately, my reserve supply in our North Shore location are finally looking pretty good! Not to mention the fact that this spring has been very good for
grafting-not too much rain and cooler temperatures. This year‘s grafts are doing great!

I am hoping to see some of you next Saturday. I also didn’t do much with any of the individual varieties that we have, but it is my goal to get back to it. There’s so many good tasting apples that can’t be bought in stores.Hopefully we will see you on Saturday the 21st.

In the meantime, feel free to reach out to us on messenger!

05/24/2025

Well, we had intended to do a pop-up sale on Saturday but scheduling just doesn’t seem to work out for this weekend.

We talked to several folk about stopping by and picking up trees. Please contact us on messenger and we will still arrange it.

We’re planning to be back next Saturday, May 31 at our Woodward Street location. In the meantime, have a great Memorial Day weekend!

And of course, remember to adopt a new best friend from Rescue Gang. 

05/20/2025

Grimes Golden on the right and Whitney Crab on the left. Hawkeye (Original Red Delicious) in the background left.

05/17/2025

We had a great time at the Bay View Neighborhood Assocation’s plant sale. Even though it was a chilly morning, the apple trees came sporting beautiful flowers, and we were excited to have so many nice visitors from the neighborhood. I hope everyone enjoys their trees!

We still have an awesome variety of 3-year old trees including:
Golden Delicious
Jonathan
McIntosh
Macoun
Milwaukee
Roxbury Russet
Yellow Transparent

And if you’re interested in even more unique varieties, we have limited quantities of many more - including King David, Ribston Pippin, Lake Dr, Fameuse Snow and more!

05/09/2025

We are looking forward to seeing you tomorrow morning. FYI, All of our trees are locally grafted. Here's a list of the varieties we will have!

Variety List and recommendations:

If you’d like a unique tree: Milwaukee, James Grieve, Nutting Bumpus, Arkansas Black, Signe Tillisch (Danish)

If you’d like a classic apple : one of the McIntosh (including Lobo) apples, Hawkeye, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Yellow Transparent

If you don’t want to wait until October: Yellow Transparent, Frostbite

If you’d like an apple that your grandparents liked: Jonathan, Grimes Golden, Yellow Transparent, Cortland

If you’d like an apple that goes back to colonial days : Roxbury Russet, Famuese (Snow), Newtown Pippin, Northern Spy, Cornish Gilliflower

If you like the new varieties available in the store (Sugarbee, Cosmic Crisp - all sugar bombs), you don’t really like apples, but consider Macoun.

If you’d just like to have the best apples : Cox Orange Pippin, King David, Ribston Pippin, Winter Banana

Note: although we have Honeycrisp trees, Honeycrisp is not known to grow well on small trees. Besides, you can buy this apple at the grocery store 365 days a year. Please give extra consideration to one of the 4 best apples above.

Arkansas Black Late Season Apple- mid October Hard, tart when picked but softens after storage. An apple that will “ keep forever” Great keeping apple

Blenheim Orange Sept15-22 Sweet tart, somewhat nutty flavor. Good storing apple. English heritage apple. Large apples on a tree for in ground planting.

Brownlees Russet October Intense, richly sweet, nutty, with tartness that “knocks your socks off” English heritage, russeted apple from 1848.

Chenango Strawberry Late August, Early Sept. Somewhat neutral, juicy flavorful apple. A beautiful apple!. New England apple from the 1800s

Cornish Gilliflower Late Season Apple- mid October Complex neutral flavor, hard when picked but softens with storage. Great keeping apple. Old New England apple popular in the 1800s

Cortland. Sept 22-30 Neutral sweet tart type McIntosh flavor. Widely used in pies and sauce MacIntosh x Ben Davis cross

Cox Orange Pippin. Sept 22-30 World’s best desert apple. Rich, sweet tart taste England’s favorite eating apple from about 1820

Famuese/ Snow Mid-Late September Snow white flesh, classic McIntosh flavor. Sweet tart when picked. French origin from the 1700s grown widely in Canada - parent of MacIntosh

Frostbite early part of September Tangy, very sweet and juicy. A 2007 release of an apple developed about 1920 from, along with Honeycrisp, the Univ of Minnesota breeding program.

Golden Delicious October 1 Crisp, spicy sweet to neutral flavor. American apple from 1905

Grimes Golden Sept 22-30 Crisp, spicy somewhat tart flavor. Parent of Golden Delicious from WVa 1805

Honeycrisp Sept 22-30 We all know the crisp, tart flavor of Honeycrisp! Good storage apple too! Newer apple from the U. Minnesota (1991)*Known not to grow as well on small rootstock

Janes Grieve Mid-September Great flavored, tart apple used in many breeding programs. Scotish apple from the 1890s. Cross of Cox Orange Pippin and Pott’s Seedling.

Jonathan Late Sept-Early October Crisp with a sweet tart flavor that your grandparents loved! Seedling apple tree from New York 1826

Kandil Sinap (Not currently available) October 1. Crisp, sweet tart flavor. Another fantastic, virtually unknown oblong apple. Unusual shape. Originated in Ukraine in the 1790s and grown widely in Turkey. Heritage apple.

King David October 8 Tart, wine-like taste. The best apple you’ve never heard of. Found in Arkansas in the 1890s

Lake Dr -last year I was “accused” of making up names for the trees that we are selling. Well. In this case, I did! This variety was found growing in a undisclosed location on a street called Lake Dr. It’s a good tasting, mid season apple that is probably a Red Delicious seedling but better eating. The apples are an odd shape – See pomiferous.com Wellington Bloomless! A unique apple to try if you’d like something different.
Lobo Mid-Late September Snow white flesh, classic McIntosh flavor. Sweet tart when picked. Seedling of MacIntosh

Macoun Mid-Late September . Snow white, sweet flesh. Loads of flavor McIntosh x Jersey Black cross

McIntosh Mid-Late September Snow white flesh, classic McIntosh flavor. Sweet tart when picked. Probable seedling of the Snow apple from 1811

McIntosh, Marshall Mid-Late September Snow white flesh, classic McIntosh flavor. Sweet tart when picked. McIntosh seedling from Mass. 1967

Milwaukee Early October Pleasantly tart Milwaukee about 1900. Eating, Cider. Duchess of Oldenburg seedling that originated in Milwaukee.

Newtown Pippin October Tart, complex flavor best eaten after a month’s storage Thomas Jefferson’s favorite eating apple

Northern Spy October Juicy with a crisp, tender texture. Neutral taste. New England from 1840- Pies, Cider, etc

Nutting Bumpus Sept1-15 Sweet tart, juicy apple. Sweeter than a Duchess apple. New England seedling of Duchess

Pioneer MacIntosh Mid-Late September Flesh is firmer than the original McIntosh. McIntosh seedling from New York state, 1976

Red Delicious (Hawkeye) Sept 15-30 Good flavor - Sweet apple with a wisp of tartness- far superior to the current version of red delicious. The original Red Delicious

Ribston Pippin Sept 22-30 Intense, rich aromatic flavor that is somewhat tart. Seeds originally from France but grown in England from the 1709s.

Roxbury Russet October Sweet and aromatic. America’s first named apple from the 1600s

Signe Tillisch Mid September Sweet and juicy with a mild, aromatic flavor. Danish heritage apple from the 1800s

Turley Winesap (currently not available) Late Season Apple- mid October. Tart, great tasting apple From Indiana 1870s

Whitney Crab (currently not available) Sept 15-22. Tart, used for jelly, cider or feeding wildlife. Crab apple used in making jelly and apple butter. Illinois from 1869.

Winter Banana October 1 Neutral, large apple you’ll love. From Indiana in the 1870s

Yellow Transparent Early Season - July 25-Aug 5. Somewhat tart - one of the earliest apples. Does not store too well. An early season apple originally from Russia, grown in the US since the 1850s

Check them all out at Pomiferous.com

Send a message to learn more

05/07/2025

🌳 Dwarf Apple Tree Sale – Saturday, May 10 | 10AM–2PM 🍎
Looking for a way to grow fresh fruit in a small space? Come check out our super dwarf apple trees—perfectly suited for Bay View city lots, patios, and even renters on the move!

These trees:
🍏 Grow on super dwarf rootstock, staying compact at 6’–7’ tall
🌞 Are ideal for growing in pots and can be repositioned for maximum sunlight
🏡 Make a great fit for urban yards, porches, and patios
🚚 Are portable, so you can take them with you when you move
🪜 Can be harvested without a ladder

Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just getting started, these trees make it easy to enjoy homegrown apples right where you live. Don’t miss it!

📍Where: 2210 S Woodward St Milwaukee
📅 When: Saturday, May 10
⏰ Time: 10AM – 2PM

Come early for the best selection!

04/04/2025

It’s looking like spring is here, finally!

From our north nursery, a couple of in-ground trees that I’ve pulled out for planting !

The first photo is a 5’, 3 year old Northwest Greening, a Wisconsin apple grown since the 1850s. Basically a cooking apple, but they can also be used for cider. This guy is on semi standard rootstock and wins the award for the best shaped tree in the nursery. It will be on the way to our NE Wisconsin location next week for planting.

The second photo is kind of an oddball variety in the apple world, a Lyman’s Large Summer apple. An apple variety originally grown in Connecticut as early as the 1840s and thought lost until rediscovered in a scion wood mixed up in 1941, this tree is due to be planted in an undisclosed Bay View location within the next couple of weeks. It was originally known by a few different names, including Large Yellow Summer.

Although our main focus is, of course, providing super dwarf apple trees to be grown in pots their entire lifetime, we do occasionally have extra trees of various sizes available.

We’re looking forward to seeing you again in about a month!

02/17/2025

❤️❤️ Pearl was Adopted on Feb 22nd! ❤️❤️

Spring is coming! But in the meantime, why not adopt a total sweetheart for your family. Please schedule a meet and greet with Pearl!

12/14/2024

So here we are, it’s mid-December and I’m only 6-7 weeks behind on a closing post for 2024.

I did want to thank everyone who stopped by our events this year. We had a good time talking with people and even selling some trees. I hope that your trees did well this year and will be with you for some time. We’re already looking forward to 2025.

I’ve been cringing at the weather for the past week - cold temperatures, wind and no snow. This can be tough on small trees while 12”-24” of snow on the ground offers great protection for the roots of trees. I lost a good number of trees the past 2 years due to the lack of snow, but none in prior years when the ground has been well covered. Hopefully all your trees were transplanted into much larger pots, but still keep them protected for winter - south side of the house, blow your snow (when it comes) over their pots or even in your unheated garage.

Here’s a couple of photos of some of my trees hunkered down for the winter and a couple of my apples (Signe Tillisch, Shell Station and Cinnamon Spice) from my mini-dwarf trees, with help of course from my taste-testing springer. We’ll more than likely have a few fig trees this coming year also!

So, we’re looking forward to seeing you again this coming spring. In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

08/18/2024

Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday, August 17th at the Green Corridor Farmers Market!

I had a request to show the size differences between 3, 2 and 1 year old trees. So it’s done!

Our favorite model took a break from her quest to eat all of my unripe apples too!

The 3 year old trees are a Signe Tillish, a Danish variety I’ve been suggesting with the palm sized apple, and an unidentified crab apple found near a Shell Station that produces excellent apples but unfortunately bear biannually.

The two year old tree is a Bancroft, a 1920s Canadian cross of McIntosh (no A in McIntosh) and an apple called Forest that I’m unfamiliar with. This little tree started off with 7-8 apples but shed a few back in June and thereafter was ravaged by carnivores (springers)

The one year old trees are a Golden Russet and a seedling tree that I refer to as a Lake Dr apple. More on this one in the future!

Please note the size differences from year to year and keep in mind that once planted in larger pots, your tree will grow at much faster rates!

And most importantly, than you again for stopping by!