Lady Washington Grape
LADY WASHINGTON

Visually the most impressive of the green grapes bred out of the Concord Grape, the Lady Washington was one of the better of J. H. Rickett's hybrids.  Its parents were Allen's Hyrbrid x Conford, so it was a complex mixture of labrusca and vinifera strains.  Introduced in 1878, it became particularly favored in the Southwest where it fared better than the Concord in dry and warm circumstances.  It was generally reckoned a "good grape"--not superlative in flavor, but sweet and juicy, usefully shippable, and beautiful on the produce table or plate.  Eye appeal counts for something, so the Lady Washington always had a following among home arborists. It remains in the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository.  

"Vine a rank grower, very vigorous; short jointed; leaves large, roundish, coarsely serrated, occasionally lobed, thick and downy, luxuriant and healthy, but inclined to mildew. Bunches large, shouldered, often double-shouldered, moderately compact; berries fully medium in size, round; skin Pale Amber, yellowish with a delicate rosy tint where exposed to the sun, having a thin whitish bloom; flesh tender, juicy, sweet, of very good quality with a delicate aroma" [Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of American Grape Vines (St. Louis, 1895), 147.]

One of the peculiar qualities of the grape was its capacity to keep after picking without refrigeration for weeks.  It exceeded its rivals the Pocklington and the Delaware in the retention of texture and flavor.  Yet for these virtues, it was rather small.  Its place in the vineyard was supplanted by later varieties--the Thompson Seedless and the Princess Seedless. Not now commercially available. 

Nurseries that sold Lady Washington grapes prior to 1920:

Van Lindley Catalog for 1899, Pomona, NC.  Springfield Catalog, Springfield TX, 1895; T. V. Munson Catalog for 1895, Dennison TX; Huntsville Nursery, Huntsville Al, 1900.

Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Deborah Passmore, 1908. 

David S. Shields