Cultivar 258: Westland

Westland is a prairie apple bred from Heyer #12 x Dr. Bill. It was developed in the prairie breeding system centered at Morden, selected at Brooks, Alberta, and introduced through the Prairie Co-operative Fruit Breeding Project. Sources place its release in 1979 or 1980. Prairie references treated it as a standard apple and recommended it across much of the Prairie region, especially for kitchen use rather than dessert quality.[S6] [S2] [S3] [S1]

The fruit is large, about 7 to 8 cm across, with a pale or greenish yellow ground color washed or striped red.[S6] [S2] [S1] The flesh is described as creamy or cream-white, sometimes tinged red, crisp, juicy, and moderately acid but sweet.[S6] Prairie sources consistently call it a good cooking apple and only fair, or at best fair, for fresh eating.[S6] [S2] [S4] It ripens from mid to late August into early September, depending on the source, and generally keeps for about six to eight weeks or stores moderately well.[S6] [S1] [S4]

Westland was selected for productivity as much as fruit size. Sources describe the tree as semi vigorous and round headed with wide crotch angles, but also as drooping, untidy, and hard to prune because heavy crops and terminal bearing can exaggerate its weeping habit.[S6] [S1] Evans noted annual cropping and little need for thinning, while Boyko criticized the tree as too droopy and not easy to manage.[S6] [S1] Fire blight ratings place it in the moderately resistant class rather than among the best prairie apples.[S7] [S4]

Hardiness reports differ in emphasis but not in substance. One detailed source describes Westland as hardy through zone 2 and recommended for all Prairie provinces.[S6] Another prairie production guide lists it for less favorable zones.[S2] Saskatchewan tables from the mid 1980s rate it as moderately hardy and say it still needed further testing there.[S4] [S7]

Westland matters in prairie apple history because it links older hardy parent material with the Prairie Fruit Co-op selection network at Morden and Brooks.[S6] [S2] Its direct parentage is Heyer #12 x Dr. Bill.[S6] [S3] It also appears later as an intermediate parent in University of Saskatchewan breeding ancestry work, which shows that it was not only a finished cultivar but also part of the next generation of prairie apple breeding.[S5]

The cultivar also drew strong opinions in the record. Manchester wrote that the fruit hangs better and keeps better than Norland, though it is probably less hardy and not as good for eating.[S1] Evans praised its annual cropping, texture, and flesh that does not brown readily.[S6] Coutts, by contrast, dismissed it harshly as a poor apple on a poor tree.[S6] That split helps explain Westland's place in the archive: a useful prairie cooking apple with real breeding importance, but not one that was universally admired.[S6] [S1]

Summary source basis

• S1: Edible Apples in Prairie Canada
• S2: Tree fruit production for the Prairie Provinces
• S3: An index of fruit cultivars tested or developed on the Canadian prairies.
• S4: HortFactsAppleCultivars CStushnoff 1985
• S5: ANCESTRY OF APPLE SELECTIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN
• S6: Westland
• S7: hortfacts stushnoff

This summary currently draws chiefly from Edible Apples in Prairie Canada, with 6 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“Ripens early September.”
— ^[1]

“H2 hardiness rating.”
— ^[1]

“Productive.”
— ^[1]

“Manchester notes: "Fruit hangs on and keeps better than Norland. Not as good eating, and probably not as hardy as Norland."”
— ^[1]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• Listed as "Heyer #12 X Dr. Bill."
• Parentage: Heyer 12 x Dr. Bill.
• 'Heyer 12' x 'Dr. Bill'.
• Parentage: Heyer #12 x Dr. Bill.
• Parentage listed as Heyer #12 x Dr. Bill.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• Haralson (lineage link)
• Lobo (lineage link)

Source-story quotations

• Midseason: Fall Red, September Ruby, Norkent (durable), Goodland (not as hardy but sweet), Battleford, Carlos Queen, WestlandRecommended fruit Varieties, p4
• ST Westland C/H2 (Large fruit, productive, self-thinning)Edible Apples in Prairie Canada, p4
• Westland (Heyer #12 x Dr. Bill) Brooks (1980) STEdible Apples in Prairie Canada, p73
• Westland (Heyer #12 x Dr. Bill) Brooks (1980) STEdible Apples in Prairie Canada, p73

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context