Item Number: FT389
Calville Rouge Apple Tree
Bold flavor, Historic French Heirloom Apple.
Check Your Zone Compatibility:
Compatible with your zone.
Growing Zone for
Our Guarantee To You
Since 1976, we've served our customers at every stage of growing. Please contact us at any time. We are happy to support and assist you.
Description
Description
Calville Rouge Apple Tree offers the rare chance to grow a historic French culinary apple whose beauty is matched by its connection to California’s Gold Rush landscape. The fruit develops rich red coloring and firm flesh with the fragrance, acidity, and structure needed for memorable tarts, pies, baked apples, and fresh tasting. Its late harvest allows flavor to build through autumn, making each apple a satisfying finale to the orchard season. This is also a preservation tree: descendants of the variety survive at historic Sierra foothill sites associated with pioneering nurseryman Felix Gillet, and each new planting helps keep that living agricultural legacy in cultivation. For gardeners who enjoy food history, regional stories, and uncommon fruit, Calville Rouge provides more than a harvest—it creates a direct link between a home orchard, 19th-century French pomology, and the early fruit-growing history of Northern California.
Calville Rouge needs about 1,000 chill hours and grows in USDA zones 5–9. This semi-dwarf tree on M-111 rootstock ripens in late fall to early winter.
Calville Rouge requires a compatible apple with overlapping bloom. Golden Delicious or Granny Smith are recommended partners.
Calville Rouge Apple Tree Details
- Fruit: Historic red culinary apple with firm flesh
- Flavor and texture: Aromatic, structured, and balanced for cooking and fresh tasting
- Best uses: Tarts, pies, baked apples, sauce, and fresh eating
- Harvest: Late fall to early winter
- USDA zones: 5–9
- Chill hours: About 1,000 hours
- Tree size: Semi-dwarf on M-111 rootstock
- Rootstock: M-111
- Pollination: Requires another compatible apple with overlapping bloom.
- Recommended pollinizers: Plant with Golden Delicious Apple or Granny Smith Apple.
- Special care: Choose a site with sufficient winter chill and a long season to mature its late crop.
- Something special: Felix Gillet introduced this French apple to California in 1876; an old tree survives near Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park.
Orchard Planning Resources
Bare Root Tree Savings & Free Shipping
Bare Root Tree Savings & Free Shipping
Build your orchard and save by mixing and matching eligible bare root trees across qualifying varieties:
- Buy 3 qualifying bare root trees and save 5%
- Buy 10 qualifying bare root trees and save 15%
- Buy 6 qualifying bare root trees and receive free standard shipping
Ordering fewer than six trees? Orders of one to five qualifying bare root trees ship for a $29.99 fixed rate by FedEx or UPS.
Eligible trees may be combined within the BareRoot Trees shipping group. Potted plants, perennial bare roots, and fall perennials are tracked in separate shipping groups and do not count toward these thresholds.
Free standard and fixed-rate shipping offers apply to qualifying deliveries within the contiguous 48 states. USPS and expedited delivery are charged separately. Manufacturer-direct, dropship, and specially packaged products are excluded unless otherwise stated.
Shipping Information
Shipping Information
Cannot ship to the following states: HI, AK, PR, GU, VI
Shipping Weight: 5.0 lb
Dimensions: 47.5"L x 2.75"W x 7.3"H
Features
Features
- Bare Root
- Requires pollinator
- Suited to Cold Climates
Characteristics
Characteristics
Planting & Care
Planting & Care
Useful Information
Useful Information
Guarantee
Guarantee
Limited Dormant Tree & Plant Guarantee
* Claim deadline is June 15th
We guarantee that your dormant tree or plant will arrive in good, viable condition. If your tree arrives in substandard condition, notify us within 3 days of delivery. Please email pictures of the box, inside packaging, the tree and its roots to helpdesk@groworganic.com. For qualifying claims involving perishable items that arrive in substandard condition, we will provide a refund of the affected item’s purchase price, excluding shipping costs. At our discretion, we may offer a replacement instead, subject to product availability and shipping feasibility. You may accept the replacement (if we are able to offer one) or receive the refund.
If your dormant tree or plant has not grown new leaves by May 15th, you may be eligible for our Limited Dormant Tree & Plant Guarantee. This guarantee provides for a store credit for the purchase price of the tree, excluding shipping. Please see the Instructions below.
Important Dates:
All dormant-tree and plant guarantee deadlines apply in the calendar year you receive your order. Plant by April 1. If no new leaves have appeared by May 15, contact Customer Service for assessment. Submit your claim and all required documentation by June 15 of that same year.
- April 1st Dormant trees/plants must be planted in the ground
- May 15th Contact Customer Service for assessment if no new leaves have grown
- June 15th Deadline to apply for a dormant tree/plant credit
All required documentation must be received by June 15th for your claim to be considered. Claims or documentation received after June 15th will be denied, without exception. Instructions listed below
Terms and Conditions
We cannot guarantee that your tree or plant will remain alive and healthy after it is received, or bear fruit as there are too many variables in your environment that are beyond our control (i.e. soil preparation, weed and pest control, proper irrigation, chill hours, compatible hardiness for your growing zone, proper choice of pollinator, extreme weather, rodent damage, disease, etc.).
We cannot guarantee that we will be able to provide a replacement tree/plant of the same species either that same growing season or in future years. Customers are responsible for all shipping fees associated with replacement trees and plants.
If we determine that the tree you purchased directly from us is not viable, we will issue you a store credit (not a refund) for the purchase price of the affected dormant tree or plant. Shipping is not included in the dormant tree/plant guarantee. Store credits can be used to purchase any product we sell. Store credit issued under the Dormant Tree & Plant Guarantee expires on July 1 of the calendar year following delivery. Previously issued credits retain their original terms.
Historically, 98% of our dormant trees and plants grow and thrive when they have been cared for and planted using our growing guides. Dormant trees and plants must be planted in the ground by April 1st in order to be eligible for credit. If the ground in your area is still frozen solid, you may temporarily plant your tree or plant in a pot.
Potted, non-dormant trees or plants are excluded from this guarantee as they are not dormant at the time of shipment. Evergreen trees such as citrus, avocado and olive trees are not available for credit under the Dormant Tree and Plant Guarantee.
Instructions
We guarantee that your dormant fruit tree or plant will leaf out, if you care for it according to our growing guides. In the unlikely event that your dormant tree or plant does not have leaves by May 15th, follow these simple steps to apply for a store credit:
Contact Customer Service with your order number, the plant name, the quantity affected, and photos of the entire plant and visible affected areas. Do not dig up a planted tree or plant for this initial review. Our team may request additional photos or guide you through a scratch test or root inspection when needed to evaluate your claim. All applicable guarantee deadlines still apply.
Green Cambium Layer / Living Trees
If the cambium layer under the bark is green, give your tree a little more time. It is still alive, but hasn’t come out of dormancy yet. Check to make sure that it is getting the right amount of deep root water, enough sunlight and that the weather is warm enough for that type of tree/plant to come out of dormancy. Every tree has its own personality and will come out of dormancy at different times. Be sure to submit the required documentation listed below by June 15th, if it doesn’t grow leaves.
Brown Cambium Layer / Dead Trees
If the scratch test shows a brown cambium layer or if your dormant tree/plant doesn’t have leaves by May 15th, please email us at helpdesk@groworganic.com. All required documentation listed below must be received by June 15th for your claim to be considered. To be considered for the guarantee claim, all required documentation must be received by June 15th. Incomplete submissions will be denied.
Required Documentation
- Order number
- Name of dormant tree/plant and the quantity affected
- Photos of each tree or plant showing:
- Visible affected areas; additional root inspection photos only if requested by our team
- The scratch test areas, only if our team requests a scratch test
- The entire tree/plant
We reserve the right to not issue credit for items that have already been replaced. We also reserve the right to require photographic evidence that the tree/plant was not killed by root rot, rodent or mechanical damage.
Share

- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.