Lunteren, Appelhof – former garden of J.H.Th.W. van den Ham

Location/Date Lunteren, Appelhof, 2009/05/13 Photographer Dick Bos. Conditions: Please inform the photographer before using this image outside Wikimedia.

From https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_van_den_Ham

In 1873 Van den Ham founded the Luntersche Tuinbouw-Vereeniging (LTV). This association has been involved in many things, but the main focus has been on fruit growing . For several decades, new varieties of fruit were cultivated, especially apples and pears . Van den Ham believed that growing apples and pears exclusively by cuttings and/or grafting would eventually lead to degeneration . He was a supporter of the so-called “aging theory” of organisms that was in vogue around 1850. [3]  The noticeable decline in the growth and fruiting of the so valuable Jutte pearand Calvin Appel, were, according to him, already clear indications for this.î [4]

The generative breeding of new varieties was done with seedlings from special beautiful fruits that had to be collected by the members of the association, mostly notables, with their meals. ìI still remember very well how in the family of my uncle, notary Dinger, there were matchboxes on the corner of the mantelpiece, in which the wicks of particularly beautiful Princesse Nobels, Goudreinetjes, Bellefleuren, etc., were kept, sort by sort . î. [5] The result of this activity of the Luntersche Tuinbouw-Vereeniging were several well-known new apple varieties, including the well-known Notaris apple , the Lemoenappel and the Lunterse Pippeling, the Roest van Elst and the Beurree van den Ham (a pear).

On the site of the former orchard of notary Van den Ham, there is now a small park – with the name De Appelhof since 2007 – in which various fruit trees were grown by the Luntersche Tuinbouw-Vereeniging, such as the Lemoenappel and the Luntersche Pippeling, have been replanted.