Zack Snipes
16.01.2024 - 11:51 / gardenadvice.co.uk
This winter we are pruning our member’s and viewers’ fruit trees as we have done for the last 3 years
Renovating old fruit trees and bushes has become a bit of a speciality of the GardenAdvice team over the last few years.
The UK and Ireland are full of old fruiting trees grown in the later victorian period and the early 70s when growing your own fruit trees and bushes were very popular. A lot of these older trees are from varieties no longer grown by the nurserymen and so are not stocked at your local garden centre.
The key often is in two stages, the initial pruning and feeding making sure you do not remove any more than a third of the tree or shrub on the first prune. Then followed up by thinning out the new shoots are they grow in the spring. Feeding although not complicated is also a key element in restoring an old fruit tree or shrub.
Many of the owners of the best unnamed or forgotten fruit trees and brushes have been kind enough to provide us will some cuttings for our orchard and fruit growing projects.
Fruit Tree Pruning – £45 to £65 per tree or bush
Images from Depositphotos
Zack Snipes
If you’re a gardener—and since you picked up this magazine I’m guessing you are—you probably get peppered with plant questions all the time. I know I do. Take Thanksgiving just this past year. My dad was looking for some trees that would “subtly block” his neighbors who had recently put a pool in their backyard. So in between doling out mashed potatoes and deciding if I wanted apple or pumpkin pie for dessert, I pulled out Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs from the nearby bookshelf to spark some suggestions. (That illustrated encyclopedia was a Christmas gift a few years back to help my dad make plant choices without my help. Its successfulness in doing so is still up for debate.) This same scenario takes place at summer picnics, children’s birthday parties, or even on planes when my seatmate asks what I do for a living. After I answer, it’s common to hear, “Wow, that’s so interesting. Listen, I have this spot where I need something …” Most of these inquiries center around trees too—and I get it. A tree is an investment with a capital “I.” Not only is a tree the single most expensive plant you will likely purchase for your landscape, but it is also the longest lived. Trees don’t like to be moved, they generally require a bit more effort to get established than a perennial or shrub, and they are usually the focal point of a specific area. For all of these reasons, everyone wants to choose the right tree.
Pruning can be intimidating. Many of us fear making a mistake our plants won’t recover from. Overall, trees are resilient; with a little practice and know-how, any gardener should be able to tackle this task. Here are some things to keep in mind before grabbing the saw.
The Victoria plum, Prunus domestica ‘Victoria’, is Britain’s best-known plum variety. It produces heavy crops of delicious, egg-shaped fruits, ideal for use in jams and chutneys, as well as eating straight from the tree.
Winter is, broadly speaking, the ideal time to prune most trees and shrubs.
Happy 2024! We’re back and ready for another great year of growing fruit and veggies! We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.
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