Iowa Beauty is a rare and little talked about apple. We obtained these genetics from Bob Purvis and this is our first year growing it. and we know of no other mother tree than what Bob has. It was introduced in the early 1900’s by C.G. Patten of Charles City, Iowa. According to the description on pomiferous, “The flesh is yellowish, firm. Very juicy and very sweet, tangy.” The apple is apparently great for Fresh eating but also for culinary purposes. But we have no experience so this is hearsay. It’s also a summer apple so it likely does not keep for too long.

In terms of hardiness, Purvis lists is as hardy to zone 2a, and he uses a system of hardiness in which 2a signifies the extreme that a tree can survive down to and not the annual average extreme of an area over a 30 year period which is how the USDA classifies it. Therefore, Purvis would argue that Iowa Beauty can survive down to -50F.

For Spring 2025, we grafted Iowa Beauty onto Dolgo rootstock, which is one of if not the hardiest rootstock known. Dolgo, which is from a Siberian Crab seedling, produces a full size tree that itself bears pretty, oblong tart (but fairly sweet by crab standards) crabapples, hence why the translation of Dolgo into Russian yields the word “long”.