Alexander and Brown were very famous seedsmen in the High Street, Perth, supplying plants, bulbs and seeds to uk and continental customers. They were in business from 1897 to 1981, when they were taken over by W. Smith & co. of Aberdeen. Alfred Bown was born at Montrose, and was originally apprenticed to Dickson and Turnbull ( of Perth Nurseries) in 1897 before joining Alexander. They produced a catalogue every couple of years, and their vegetable seed list is most interesting, but Appletreeman’s main interest is where they got their ‘English grown’ fruit trees from and who they were supplying locally.
They started putting English grown fruit in their catalogue from around 1901. The varieties they sold were:
Apples
- Arbroath Oslin
- Beauty of Moray
- Bismark
- Blenheim Orange
- Bramley’s seedling
- Codlin Keswick
- Court of Wick
- Cox’s Orange Pippin
- Devonshire Quarrenden
- Duchess of Oldenburgh
- Dumelow’s Seedling
- Early Harvest
- Ecklinville Seedling
- Emperor Alexander
- Golden Spire
- Lady Sudeley
- Hawthornden ( old ).
- Kerry Pippin
- King of the Pippins
- Lane’s Prince Albert
- Lord Derby
- Lord Grosvenor
- Lord Suffield
- Mank’s Codlin
- Northern Dumpling
- Peasgood’s Nonsuch
- Ribston Pippin
- Reinette du Canada
- Stirling Castle
- Tower of Glamis
- Warner’s King
- Worcester Pearmain
”….other varieties can be had on application……”
Pears
- Bergamont Gansel’s
- Beurre Bachelier
- d’amanalis
- D’Aramberg
- Diel
- Rance
- Bon Chrétien ( Williams )
- Bishop’s Thumb
- Clapps Favourite
- Colmar
- Crawford Early
- Glou Morceau
- Doyenne d’Ete
- Hessel
- Jargonnelle
- Louise Bonne of Jersey
- Marie Louise
- Moorfowl Egg
- Passe Colmar
- Swan’s Egg
- Thompson’s
- Vicar of Winkfield
Plums
- Belle de Septembre
- Coe’s Golden Drop
- Czar
- Damson
- Early Prolific, River’s
- Gage, Blue
- Green
- Oulin’s Gold
- Purple
- Jefferson
- Kirke’s
- Magnum Bonum, Red
- White ( White Mogul )
- Orleans
- Early
- Pond’s Seedling
- Prince Englebert
- Reine Claude de Bavay
- Sharp’s Emperor
- Victoria
- Washington
Quite an impressive list! It is very likely that these varieties survive in the older gardens of Perthshire today. Let me know if you think you have one!
plantsandapples.com 
Hi there, great list of fruit available at the time in Perth… very interesting
Hi there, great list of fruit available at the time in Perth… very interesting
excellent, stuff
excellent, stuff
what time you going to megginch castle?
what time you going to megginch castle?