Calville Rouge Apple Tree offers the rare chance to grow a historic French culinary apple whose beauty is matched by its connection to California’s Gold Rush landscape. The fruit develops rich red coloring and firm flesh with the fragrance, acidity, and structure needed for memorable tarts, pies, baked apples, and fresh tasting. Its late harvest allows flavor to build through autumn, making each apple a satisfying finale to the orchard season. This is also a preservation tree: descendants of the variety survive at historic Sierra foothill sites associated with pioneering nurseryman Felix Gillet, and each new planting helps keep that living agricultural legacy in cultivation. For gardeners who enjoy food history, regional stories, and uncommon fruit, Calville Rouge provides more than a harvest—it creates a direct link between a home orchard, 19th-century French pomology, and the early fruit-growing history of Northern California.Calville Rouge needs about 1,000 chill hours and grows in USDA zones 5–9. This semi-dwarf tree on M-111 rootstock ripens in late fall to early winter.Calville Rouge requires a compatible apple with overlapping bloom. Golden Delicious or Granny Smith are recommended partners.Calville Rouge Apple Tree Details Fruit: Historic red culinary apple with firm flesh Flavor and texture: Aromatic, structured, and balanced for cooking and fresh tasting Best uses: Tarts, pies, baked apples, sauce, and fresh eating Harvest: Late fall to early winter USDA zones: 5–9 Chill hours: About 1,000 hours Tree size: Semi-dwarf on M-111 rootstock Pollination: Requires another compatible apple with overlapping bloom. Recommended pollinizers: Plant with Golden Delicious Apple or Granny Smith Apple. Special care: Choose a site with sufficient winter chill and a long season to mature its late crop. Something special: Felix Gillet introduced this French apple to California in 1876; an old tree survives near Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park. Orchard Planning Resources Bare Root Tree Selection Guide How to Plant Bare Root Trees Fruit & Nut Tree Characteristics Tree Rootstock Characteristics Chart
