Welcome to the Scion Wood Shop.
Dormant scion wood ships mid-February.
Each stick will have an average of 16 buds. We were on the verge of drought for most of the 2020 growing season, so some of the sticks are smaller. If the stick is short, we will ship extra. Most varieties of scion wood in this shop comes from bearing trees in our certified organic orchard. This means that we have harvested fruit and made cider from them and are not giving you cuttings from mislabeled trees.
If you are interested in ordering more than 100 sticks, please e-mail autumn@evescidery for quantity discounted pricing.
New! Rootstocks! Certified organic B118 rootstocks grown in our orchard stoolbed. B118 is our favorite rootstock for a low input cider orchard. Considered close to standard in size, cold hardy, less attractive to voles than some, well anchored and very precocious-- often bearing in the 3rd year in our orchards. Unlike commercial rootstocks, these babies have lots of beautiful roots and already formed mycorhizal colonies. We are shipping these as soon as we can dig them in March. They will not ship with your scion wood order. We recommend in-situ whip and tongue grafting as a planting technique. Read more about it here.
Liberty is primarily a fresh eating apple, but we use it occasionally in blends to add an aromatic punch. It’s one of those varieties that ferments into an aroma that is remarkably similar to the fresh...
We like to add a certain amount of highly aromatic dessert pears to our otherwise tannic perry, and to pear based distilled spirits. Potomac is a good one because it is highly fireblight resistant. A droup...
We don’t know for sure what this variety is, but we suspect it is a M26 rootstock. A long time ago, James trained and pruned these rogue rootstocks just like the other trees in his orchard....
“Kingston Black. (Elusive, exceptional) Many folks have given up on Kingston Black. For all the hype about it being the best single variety cider, the tree is difficult to grow—lots of blind wood, slow to come...
Ashton Bitter. (early bittersweet) Early season English bittersweet. Hard, sometimes quite bitter tannins. Useful source of concentrated tannins for September harvest.
Herefordshire Redstreak (early bittersharp) Lovely petrol and ripe apple aromas. Lots of acid and nice tannins.
Bulmer’s Norman. (bittersweet) Precocious and productive. Tannins are hard and can be bitter and the fruit drops all at once, bruises easily and doesn’t hold well. Can make a solid tannic blending apple.
Ashmead’s Kernal (aromatic, late acid) Floral aromas, lots of dry extract, high brix and insane acid characterize this English heirloom’s cider qualities. The tree is a shy bearer on our site.
Brown Snout (soft bittersweet) Melt in your mouth tannins define this English bittersweet. This apple does not produce BSA in cider but has pretty aromas non the less. Late blooming and fireblight susceptible.
Chisel Jersey. (bittersweet) An English bittersweet with beautiful aromas, hard tannins and a lot of bitterness. Very fireblight susceptible on our site, in part due to its extremely late blossoming.
Newtown Pippin (storied apple with heirloom flavor) We haven’t fallen in love with this variety, but are willing to keep at it for a bit…perhaps the apples are not as good from young trees on a...
Stembridge Cluster, (bittersharp, with “petrol” qualities) Nice soft tannin and great acidity. This variety is excellent for cider, but biennial and prone to canker.
Reine des Pommes (bittersweet) Lots and lots of tannin in these perfumed apples. Classic BSA.
Galerina (Spanish) Haven’t fruited yet. Just a little bit of scion wood to share with experimentalists.
Brandy (precocious bittersweet pear) The earliest to come into bearing of our English Perry pear trials. Smaller, manageable tree. High gravity tannic fruit. Fireblight susceptible.
Akane (early acid, ripe red apple aromas) Like it’s later cousin Idared, Akane’s Jonathan parentage means red apple aromas plus good acidity.
Brown’s Apple (sharp) Just starting to get fruit on these. Big, red, early acid with a bit of tannin. English.
Cox Orange Pippin. (early acid, aroma) Intensely flavored and quite tart, Cox is a nice blending apple for early September acid and nice ‘heirloom’ aromatics.
Major (very early bittersweet) Ripens in late August/early Spetember. Soft and fruity aroms and nice tannin. Prone to fireblight and summer rots.
Tydeman’s Worcester Early. (aromatics) This apple drops all at once in late August. Be there or be square. Basically a summer apple with relatively low sugar, we prize this apple for the intensely pretty aromatics it...
Pink Pearl (Pink flesh and light pink juice) More high acid pink juice for real rose colored cider.
Roxbury Russet (classic russet flavor) Russet’s as a group tend toward beeswax, honey, ripe melon and stone fruit. Roxbury is no exception. Perhaps the oldest “American” variety.
Saint Edmund’s Russet (early heirloom aromatics) Delicious tropical aromas, plus density and balanced acid. A lovely, weeping growth habit and regular annual bearing. Resistant to scab but will crack with excessive swings in ground moisture.
Reinette Zabergau (German Russet) Large, easy to harvest russets with more acid than Golden Russet and similar but different classic russet flavor profile.
Yarlington Mill. (femininity) This highly biennial apple adds soft, supple tannin to the structure of a cider which tends to make the cider more voluptuous and approachable. In addition, it has lovely complementary aromatics like orchard...
Dabinett. (bittersweet) A beautiful example of an English bittersweet variety, Dabinett has all the attributes we want: ripe apple aromas, leather, smoke, sweat. It has nice firm tannins and good Brix, can be an annual bearer,...
Esopus Spitzenburg (Spicy aromatic heirloom) Another old New York apple with great cider making qualities that doubles as an aromatic and a sharp. Spitzenburg contributes plenty of acid and a spicy “old fashioned” flavor to cider.
Golden Russet. (aroma/richness) This apple adds a very distinct set of aroma characteristics as well as beautiful richness. As a single variety, it lacks structure; but we find at about 30%-50% of the blend the cider...
Geneva Crab (Dark red flesh and juice) For making a real rose colored cider. Highly acidic and a bit bitter, this apple needs blending but makes stunning pink juice.
Wickson (pure, searing acid, high brix, plus a little bit of spice) This apple is a great, complimentary source of acid. It’s very concentrated, allowing less to be used so the intensity of the main bittersweet...
Puget Spice (High gravity tannin acid bomb) One of the most disease resistant trees in our orchard. Ping pong ball size apples easily shake off the tree when ripe in the late fall. Lots of sugar,...
Virginia (Hewe’s) Crab. (aromatics, tannins, acid) As the climate warms, we find ourselves drawn more and more to this apple from the southern end of our Appalachian mountains. Brix on this gem ranges from 16 to...
Porter’s Perfection (Intensely fruity, fresh, petrol, bright acid) We are pretty excited about how this apple (often identifiable by its fused fruits) seems to express petrol and mineral characteristics on our Van Etten site. This apple...
Medaille d’ Or (High gravity high tannin bittersweet) Fireblight susceptible, late blooming french bittersweet with loads of biennial golden fruit.
Collaos Newly release from quarantine Spanish cider. Has that special Spanish zingy acidity to it. Still need to do lots of eval on this.
Vilberrie (Perfumed and tannic) This extremely late blooming French bittersweet is extremely perfumed with the classic “BSA” aromas we love in French cider apples. High sugar tannin bomb that is susceptible to fireblight.
Ellis Bitter. (bittersweet; leather, ripe apple skins, bacon) Ripening in early September, Ellis Bitter is our main early season bittersweet. Heavenly sweet, ripe aromas backed by solid tannins. The tree is biennial in our organic production...
Somerset Redstreak (fruity bittersweet) Absolutely love the beautiful fruity aromas on this English bittersweet. Early to mid September harvest. Very biennial.
Bedan (bittersweet) Soft tannins, classic French cider aromas. Very productive but very biennial.
Frequin Rouge. (concentrated BSA aromas, tannin) This apple has incredible concentrated smoky/leather/orchard floor aromas plus a firm tannic structure. Late to come into bearing, an extremely biennial tree, high vigor and small fruit makes this tree...
Northern Spy. ( Minerality: salt and shale) We love NS for its minerality; however, this is definitely one of those apples that is fairly insipid when grown and harvested like dessert fruit in the wrong location....
Bramley’s Seedling. (pure acid) The acid is a fresh, bright acid that doesn’t come across as “malic;” an important blending component useful for bringing up acidity without changing the flavor. A massive apple size makes harvest...
Goldrush (Sweet tart high sugar acid source) Scab resistant modern apple with high gravity and lots of acidity. Caution: the acid has a flavor that verges on “malic” think sweet tarts candy. Could be a plus...
Stoke Red (Early fruity acid and tannin) This strongly biannual bittersharp has a lovely bright fruit characteristic.