English Apples - Leics St. Cecilia
The St. Cecilia apple is the sister apple to St. Ailred. Both are James Grieve x Ellison's Orange. We are still looking for it; we do not have a written description but there will be similarities to its parents and it will be distinct from James Grieve.
We have not been able to locate a known St. Celilia tree at the time of writing. However in 2013 we had a thorough search of St. Joseph's parish, near Mount St. Bernard's Abbey, where the apple was bred. There is an ancient cluster of three trees in a private garden and we think that a fruit found underneath with some similarities to James Grieve (we do not know which one the apple came from) may be the St. Cecilia apple. We have grafted all three onto MM106 rootstock and are now waiting to see what the fruit is like.
UPDATE, SEP 2016
We are calling the trees St. Joseph's 1, 2 and 3.
St. Joseph's 1
This one formed three tiny apples in the year of grafting, entirely red in colour.
St. Joseph's 2
This one sends out leaves very very late. On this basis it could be Api Rose.
St. Joseph's 3
Fruit formed Sep 2016: Looks like a Blenheim:
