Fruit ripening time: March
 
As a single varietal cider, Bulmer’s Norman creates a mild-bittersweet cider with hard tannins. It is also very useful for adding tannic notes in blends.
 
Medium to large sized fruit with a thick, waxy, yellow-green skin and a slight orange coloured flush. 
The flesh is white, with a sweet, floral, astringent juice. Firm when ripe, becoming woolly in texture shortly after.
 
Very vigorous tree, producing heavy crops and tending towards biannual cropping. Branches can be brittle and break under heavy crops. Also useful as an interstem to improve the vigour of the top grafted variety.
 
Uses: Cider apple. Bulmer’s Norman will make a good flavoured single varietal cider and is useful as a blended cider, adding hard tannins. Fast fermenting. The astringency makes this apple unpalatable for fresh eating. 
Stores well but should be used within 3 weeks of harvest for the best results. 
 
Tree Size: 
Dwarf: Can be kept to 1.5 m and grown in containers. Must be staked.
 
Semi-dwarf: 3 - 5 m tall, depending on shape 
 
Pollinators: Akané, Belle Cacheuse, Braeburn, Bonza, Cleopatra, Cornish Aromatic, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Cripps Pink, Democrat, Fuji, Freyberg, Gala, Geeveston Fanny, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Kingston Black, Lady in the Snow, Laxton’s Fortune, Prince Alfred, Red Delicious, Sturmer, Worcester Pearmain, Yarlington Mill, and white flowering Crabapples.
 
Flowering Group 3 and a TRIPLOID variety, producing no viable pollen itself and requiring pollination from 2 different pollinators.