Scion Search
Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project is actively searching Colorado, the country, and the world, to locate rare and assumed extinct, fruit tree varieties, to be able to collect scions for reestablishment of these trees in Montezuma County.
We are also working with the Colorado State Southwestern Colorado Research Center in Yellow Jacket, Colorado, to try some of these rare varieties for their wider applicablity in Montezuma County orchards.
Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project seeks to restore varieties historically grown here. In thanks to good documentable historical data such as early Montezuma County Fair records, MORP knows what once grew here down to details of awards won and who won them. This is helpful in many ways. For one, from these records MORP learned that the Shackleford apple, now listed as extinct, won awards, grown by Mr. Myler. Any old-timer can tell you just where Myler's Corner is, thus MORP was sure to graft from the three last remaining trees growing there. Secondly, it was from these records that MORP even knew to look for an apple called the Colorado Orange, and finally tracked it down to a last remaining tree in Canon City.
As it turns out Mr. Jasper Hall sourced a lot of his material from there. Thirdly, when MORP grafts from an old tree listed as once grown here that is not particularly rare, such as the Wolf River, it adds it to its collection based on historical context. Or if MORP has yet to locally find a variety listed, and that variety is rare, it will spring it from the Plant Genetic Resources Unit or get it from a grower or collector when possible.
Finally, from these and other records MORP has a WANTED list of apples once grown here, but for now considered extinct: Walbridge, Flora Bell, Kent's Beauty, Wyeth, Ben Maupin, Shackleford, Baskett, Sweet Pear, Dwinnie, Lovers or Lovers II, Tennessee, Striped Sweet Pippin, Fall Rambo, Ned, Cooper's Early White, Sikman, Colorado Favorite, Colorado Red, Colorado Seedling, and others.
Click Here to see some of the fruit tree varieties that we are currently searching for:
We also have successes: