Bigarreau Cherry

Moderator: appledude

Post Reply
David Howell
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2014 9:06 am

Bigarreau Cherry

Post by David Howell »

I volunteer in two old walled gardens near Dublin, Ireland which are being restored. Part of this is the replacement of the old fruit which have been recorded in the gardens. One garden has a detailed map of an orchard in the walled garden from 1867 and in the second there are old wall labels from 1955 with the fruit names on them. In both orchards there is a reference to a Bigarreau cherry, but that is all. Would anybody have an idea which cherry variety they could be referring to. Thanks for any help.
sandra
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:36 pm

Re: Bigarreau Cherry

Post by sandra »

See what I found, right here at our own OP website :)

More information, same source.

Welcome aboard, Dave.
David Howell
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2014 9:06 am

Re: Bigarreau Cherry

Post by David Howell »

Thank you for your reply Sandra. I had seen the 2 varieties on the OP site.
In the Fruit manual by Robert Hogg published in 1884 he has the Bigarreau cherry as a separate variey to the Napoleon Bigarreau, the descriptions of each variety are very similar and I wonder if they are the same variety. The Bigarreau Gaucher I have already discounted as the OP site has it's origin as 1900-1949 and in one of the gardens the fruit plan is from 1869.
The 'Pomona Londinensis' from 1818 has a drawing of a Bigarreau cherry which is similar to the OP picture of the Napoleon Bigarreau.
I am asking if anybody has any knowledge about the Bigarreau cherry and if, as with several varieties of fruit, it has been renamed or identified as the same fruit under several different names (Hogg has several names for the Bigarreau cherry in his book), possibly due to looking different because of different growing conditions.
We will probably use the Napoleon Bigarreau as it seems to be the closest to the discriptions of the Bigarreau cherry, but it would be interesting to find out the story on this cherry.
missnynke
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:13 am

Re: Bigarreau Cherry

Post by missnynke »

There is also an bruine bigarreau (brown b.) and a blauwe bigarreau (blue b.). That last one is my favourite any of hundreds of cherry sorts.

i know it is very far from Dublin, but on sunday 13th juli 2014, there is the cherry festival (Kers) in Alden Biezen, Belgium.
Hundreds of varieties are shown, and you can walk in the 14 hectares? cherry-orchard, and try all varieties.

http://www.boomgaardenstichting.be/pdf/ ... 202014.pdf
OrangePippin-Richard
Posts: 165
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2010 12:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Bigarreau Cherry

Post by OrangePippin-Richard »

The UK National Fruit Collection seems to distinguish between Gaucher and Napoleon. I also get the impression that "bigarreau" is a generic term which can be applied to any firm-fleshed cherry (in the same way that "pippin" can mean any seedling apple).
jonjo
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2014 1:41 pm

Re: Bigarreau Cherry

Post by jonjo »

Hi
just joined the forum so big hello to all.
my greatest joy is the dessert cherry.
And I often pass the kent growers at the right time of year to fulfill my liking for what is to me
the best tasting cherry of all, the kent white, as it is described by the vender.
l have recently decided, due to chronic lack of space, to have the miniest of cherry orchards on dwarfing
rootstock.
So first on my list the kent whlte.
well turns out the variety was called napolian bigarreau or commonly know as the kent nap
I would be gratfull to anyone that can offer good advice for dwarfe cherrys grown in large container
reg
jonjo
Post Reply