Scottish growing tool
Apples Variety Selector: Which One For Your Garden
Every recommendation below traces back to our full Apples varieties comparison — this page is the fast route to one answer for your specific situation, no clicking through required.
If: Only room for one tree
ScrumptiousAGM
Explicitly self-fertile, a genuine option where there's only room for one apple tree, which the pollination requirement of most other varieties would otherwise rule out. It's an early dessert apple (Sept to Oct, pollination group 3), though it doesn't carry the northerly-suitability tag.
If: Two or more trees → An easy, reliable all-rounder or Two or more trees → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice
James GrieveAGM
The strongest general-purpose pick: it carries the northerly, colder, higher-rainfall suitability tag, ripens early (Sept to Oct) enough to beat a short season, and its pollination group sits comfortably alongside other mid-season varieties for straightforward two-tree planting. It also has a genuine Scottish origin, raised by Edinburgh nurseryman James Grieve before 1893.
If: Two or more trees → Longest storage into winter
Edward VIIAGM
Ready from December through April, the longest storage life of the varieties covered, and it carries the northerly-suitability tag. It sits in pollination group 6, the latest-flowering of the six regionally tagged varieties, so it needs another late-flowering pollinator rather than any tree in the garden.
If: Two or more trees → An early, reliable cooking apple
GrenadierAGM
A reliable early cooker, ripening Aug to Sept, and one of the six varieties carrying the northerly-suitability tag. Recommended as the pick for an early, reliable cooking apple over the standard UK cooker.
If: Two or more trees → The standard UK cooking apple, even if it needs extra pollinators
Bramley's SeedlingAGM
The standard UK cooking apple, holding its own separate AGM outside the main 23-variety list. It's a triploid, so unlike most varieties here it needs two compatible pollinator partners flowering at the same time, not just one, since its pollen can't effectively pollinate other trees.
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