Robert Frost Apple Trees
Offered to Public April 27

Robert Frost had a long love affair with apple trees, both in growing them and writing poems about them. Now the Friends of Robert Frost has made it possible for Frost lovers everywhere to grow a Frost apple tree in their own gardens. 

The first annual Robert Frost Apple Tree Sale will take place on Sunday, April 27 at the Robert Frost Stone House Museum located on Route 7A in Shaftsbury, The fundraising event starts at 12 noon and runs through 4 p.m.

There will be four varieties of Frost apple trees offered this year. The new trees were grafted from cuttings taken off old trees on Frost's two properties in Shaftsbury, the Stone House and the Gulley.

The two varieties from the Stone House are a Snow apple and Lillian's crabapple. The Snow apple is an heirloom variety that came to America in 1600, and is a parent of the MacIntosh. Lillian's crabapple is named after Frost's daughter-in-law who planted the tree in the 1930s. It has a fragrant blossom and a very pretty crimson fruit that is good for jelly.

From the Gulley there are two more varieties: a Rhode Island Greening and a wild tree that we call "Gulley's Wild Patience." Although historically significant for its Frost connection, its parentage is uncertain. It ripens late, thus the name "Wild Patience."

The cuttings, referred to as "budwood," were taken in August 2006 and were delivered to Adams County Nursery in Pennsylvania where apple trees are produced for commercial orchards.  It took 18 months to make new saplings that are now ready to plant. 

Museum director Carole Thompson noted that "Frost had almost 1000 apple trees at the Stone House, but his original orchard is in ruin. We thought it would be fun to propagate the old trees on the property by grafting.

The Frost Snow apple has been the most popular variety, especially since Frost wrote "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" here at the Stone House."

New England is a great place to grow apples. Of course, as Frost said,