Orchards

Chapter Two

Choose Your Trees

There are a number of important things you need to think about when deciding what trees to plant in your orchard:

What species of fruit trees to include.

What varieties to choose and their suitability for your location.

What nursery availability there is of your chosen trees.

How much of each fruit you want to produce and what you plan to do with it.

How big you want the trees to grow and if/how you plan to train them.

How to ensure that there are pollinisers - trees that will cross-pollinate - in the vicinity.

Let's look at each consideration in turn.

A limited number of varieties are available in garden centres.

A wide range of possibilities

Pip fruit

Most orchardists will want apples to be included in the mix. They are the easiest of the tree fruits to grow and perfect for a beginner to start with. There are apples that will grow everywhere in Britain from Sussex to Stornoway, from Lerwick (with a bit of help) to Land's End. Most of the apples we eat nowadays have a long history of breeding and selection from the wild apples of Kazakhstan or China and bear little resemblance to the sour, wild crabs sometimes found in British woodlands. These selected fruits were gradually introduced into Europe over the centuries. You can still find the Pomme d'Api, believed to have been in cultivation since Roman times, and all our modern varieties have been produced from older selections.

The Roman apple, Pomme d'Api.

Having said that, sometimes apples on trees sprouted from pips discarded from a railway carriage can be rather good! Now and then, a new apple is 'discovered' in this way.

Old pear trees can be an important landscape feature.

Pears are almost as popular as apples and hardier than people think. They are also extremely long-lived as fruit trees, with a long and fascinating history as part of the diet of these islands. The 'crab' form of wild pear is called - tellingly - a choker. Since earliest times, the range and types of pears in Britain have been local, eclectic and changeable, many home-bred, but from early European scions.

Stone fruit

The wild cherry, or gean, is a mighty tree when grown, too big for most gardens. It bears fabulous blossom, as well as edible fruit that are variable in colour, size and sweetness. They are often more white than red. Old photographs show the very tall ladders needed to harvest these fruit. Modern, cultivated cherries have been bred and selected all around the world, especially Canada. On dwarfing rootstocks, they are easier to pick (no ladders or aptly named 'cherry pickers') and to keep protected from the large number of birds and other cherry gourmands who compete with the orchard owner for a taste.

Plums, damsons and gages are the other orchard mainstays, with plums probably being most people's 'must-have'. They have their origins in several wild species of Prunus, but not species native to Britain. Bullace (Prunus insititia) and sloe (Prunus spinosa) are our natives, the fruit of which bears no resemblance to the large, luscious garden plum, but any 'wild' plums found growing are probably descended from garden escapes. The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale in Kent holds a wide range of plums - sweet, acid, intense, aromatic, marble-sized to monstrous and any colour from greenish-yellow to darkest purple - but, for various reasons, surprisingly few make it into the garden. It's hard not to want them all!

Blue, yellow and black plums are relatively unknown in gardens.

Damsons were once named Damascenes. They take their name from Damascus in Syria, where they have been cultivated for millennia. In Westmorland, north-west England, the damsons are propagated by root suckers, which makes them clones of introductions made many centuries ago! The small, musky, purple fruit are valued in preserve-making, but are very difficult to resist straight from the tree. If you have an awkward or shady spot, plant a damson there and it will probably thrive.

Gages, which originated in Iran, are not always green, but they are always of a choice flavour and much sought after. They are perceived as being more difficult than plums and damsons, partly because some are unable to self-pollinate. This is not true of them all, however, and if you have room for a gage or two, you will be the envy of the neighbourhood. Greengages are the sweetest of fruits and hide in amongst the foliage. Some gardeners are not aware of the bounty lurking above their heads!

Mirabelles (cherry-plums) are hardy and easy to grow.

Mirabelles, or cherry-plums, are also stone fruit, just like plums, but resemble large cherries in shape and size. The fruit can be red or yellow or anything in-between, but are always sweet and very moreish. They are widely grown as smaller orchard trees in mainland Europe, especially France, and some choice cultivars can be obtained. The best known is probably the Mirabelle de Nancy. Here, you will sometimes come across cherry-plums in very old orchards, where they were once used as a rootstock on which to graft plums. Over the centuries, the plum trees have died, but the cherry-plum rootstock has taken over, sometimes providing a more plentiful crop than the plum did and should definitely be more widely appreciated. They can also be planted as part of a hedging scheme or as garden ornamentals, for they flower profusely very early in the year. Then in late July, one will find find pavements and lawns littered with delicious little fruit that their owners have disregarded, unaware of their edibility. They are tough little trees that thrive in challenging conditions, but, sadly, in hedges most of the fruiting wood is hacked away in the annual 'prune'.

Unusual fruits

Apart from the mainstream orchard trees, you may have just the spot for something unusual:

Peaches and nectarines

Nothing can beat a peach or nectarine from your own tree, but in much of Britain, you really need an unheated greenhouse or some protection from frost, which can destroy the very early flowers. The warmth and shelter of an open glasshouse can also help the fruit to sweeten and ripen. In milder areas, a south-facing wall will provide the right conditions. Easy to grow, prolific and self-fertile, we swear our peaches are superior to anything you'll buy in the supermarket.

Apricots

As with peaches, some protection or a warm, sheltered spot will provide the right conditions for apricots. A word of warning: sometimes you may see apricot trees growing outside and setting fruit. These may be ornamental cultivars, which have high concentrations of cyanides in the stones and are not for eating.

Medlars

Perhaps the most unusual of our top fruits, the medlar bears large, single white flowers that form strange-looking, hard brown fruit within the flower calyx. They are not edible until they have 'bletted' - a polite way of saying started to rot - when they become soft, sweet and have a lovely smell. Really! Eat from the shell with a teaspoon, or make into delicious medlar jelly.

A basket of medlars - ripe when rotting!

Quinces

In a sunny, protected corner, the tree quince (Cydonia oblonga), which is distinct from the (equally edible) shrub known as the Japonica quince, will yield large, yellow, lumpy, fuzzy fruit with a strong flavour and a peculiar, sweet perfume. It rarely gets sweet enough here to eat raw, but apple pies with quince in them are out of this world. It is an untidy tree, but we've spotted it trained as an espalier, which is much neater and hopefully as productive.

Mulberries

Mulberries tend to be a feature of old cathedral squares and gardens, where shelter and the heat reflected from paving really suit this spreading tree. It has weeping foliage and choice, raspberry-like fruit that need the warmth of walls and buildings to become their sweet and juicy best.

Figs

Once again, a warm wall (south-west facing is ideal, or a corner) or cold greenhouse will be the best site for this tree to produce its delicious Mediterranean fruit. It's surprisingly easy to grow given its region of origin and even a young plant in a pot will do well. Overwintering large fruit sadly tend to drop off; it's the spring-formed figs that ripen over the summer. Tradition says to plant a fig tree in a box or surrounded by slabs, in order to restrain the roots and stop them taking energy from fruit production.

Nuts

There are several good varieties of cobnut related to our native hazel (Corylus avellana), which would happily grow to 30m (100ft) if given the freedom to do so. Usually, they are coppiced to keep them small and easily harvested. Be warned - they also have a vigorous root system, so get the right spot first time! Filberts, cultivars of Corylus maxima, differ by having a larger sheath around the nut, but are otherwise similar. The purple-leaved cultivar is especially attractive, with long, purple catkins. We recommend planting a few different varieties to help with cross-pollination. Other nut trees to consider include walnuts, if you have space. Modern cultivars start producing prolifically while still young.

Right place, right variety?

The choice in most garden centres, unfortunately, is usually limited to a few English or Europe-bred varieties. Most of us have only the rather...