Which Fruit Trees?

[JaneandtheLaundry]

I only have a smallish newbuild garden (11x5m) and want a nice fruit tree that doesn't take over the space but screens us a bit from the people at the bottom of the garden.

I thought maybe nectarine, but I'm unsure how much fruit they bear after 2-3 years and how long it takes to get to full height. I am also not sure where to buy a decent one that will actually take to the garden, without paying silly amounts of delivery. None of our local nurseries do them.

The garden is currently just grass.

I’ve planted 25 different fruit trees - but none of the exotic fruits came to anything over 12 years alas.

I do like the apple tree “Katy” though, would recommend it and would buy again.
Truly red apples, thin skinned, very juicy.

But no neighbour cover when the leaves are off Oct to April…..

Whereabouts are you in the country? Peaches, nectarines like a warm spot, as do apricots though there are now varieties bred for the N of England.

The fruit trees suited to our climate are apples, pears, cherries, plums, gages, bullaces, damsons. Or for beauty of flowers, quince, medlar,which aren’t much eaten nowadays. Also mulberry.

What fruit do you like eating?

Buy from a fruit nursery rather than a general nursery - more varieties and good advice on what’s suitable for your conditions. They send out stock bare rooted in the winter, so carriage charges are not insane because you’re not paying to carry limps of soil round the country.

You could have an espalier tree along the boundary - lots of width but little depth.

@VWT5 which exotic trees haven’t done well for you?

You could do cherries but you might need to net the tree if you don't want the birds to get them all. Added benefit of pretty blossom and lovely autumn colour.
Kiwis are ok up north too but they grown on a vine.

We have a.lot of fruit trees and bushes

One is an apricot and is quite big now.

The pigeons strip the blossom as soon as it appears! I laugh when my husband calls it an apricot tree as I've never seen one. He says we did have one once. It's a nice looking tree though.

Then we have apples that do well most years (not this year) and plums that seem to have one good season then one poor. These need grease banding annually.

Then we have a fruit cage for everything else or the birds will get the fruit before we do. Raspberries, strawberry, all types of currant, thornless blackberry, blueberries.

If I was going to plant one tree in the UK I think I'd choose a quality apple. Or, not a fruit tree, an established magnolia with a good shape. I love our magnolia as its our first sign of spring and our apples keep us going in crumbles all year round!

Look at the rootstock first.
You want a dwarf tree (up to 2.5m) or you'll end up with a full sized tree and fruit you can't reach.
Most fruit trees need two close for fertilisation, and trees are self fertilising and don't need this.
Personally I'd go for a gage or plum tree simply because they're delicious. Or a nice cherry tree.

Bit of a wildcard as you can't eat them, but the birds love them, is a bird cherry tree. The blossoms smell like almonds.

Back to where to buy from.

I've no idea where ours came from we've had them so long (we've been here 30 years) but my work did buy, as a retirement gift, a beautiful established magnolia from Burncoose Nurseries. I'd certainly look at speaking to them if I were buying a one off. I'd imagine they may be able to advise too.

There's a lot of choice, I've found Blackmoor Nursery to be really good, also Pomona Fruits, Walcot Organic Nursery and Mail Order Trees. Think about what you want from it, something more ornamental like a crabapple (Evereste is my favourite) which has blossom and beautiful autumn fruit that lasts for months in the winter, or pick whatever is your favourite fruit to eat, apples, plums, cherry and pear grow especially well in the UK. I've got a beautiful quince tree but it's really small and not useful as a screen. If having a screen is more important than the fruit rowan trees have a long season of interest and you can get lots of different varieties.

We've just moved to the east midlands from down south, so I think most things grow here, but maybe not quite everything that grows in Cornwall.

I have a clay soil that I need to make serious alterations to anyway as they were supposed to put topsoil and grass, and what they actually did was put grass down on top of clay backfill. 🙄

I like eating most fruit but DD is allergic to kiwis so we can't have them in the garden. DH doesn't like apples in anything. Cherries would get used in pies and flapjacks and they freeze well as far as I remember.

I didn't know there were specific fruit nurseries.

@ToBeOrNotToBee I'm not the biggest fan of dwarf apple trees, DM used to have 6 dwarf trees in a very small garden and the cherries were great but the apples and pears were tiny and we got maybe a handful each year (she had them for about 10 years before she moved), but dwarf cherries elsewhere in the garden is a good idea and reaching the fruit is a good point.

A Victoria plum then, perhaps? I don't know if you need more than one of these to get fruit but they are a beautiful plum.

@VWT5 Oooh I do like Katy cider actually so a Katy could be a good shout (DH wouldn't then be faced with billions of apple-related cooks every harvest haha).
@Feelingstrange2 I never thought of plums. That might be a better way to go than a nectarine as they're more widely available.

I didn't know there were specific fruit nurseries.

I've used Chris Bowers who are good. Also look at Frank P Matthews, R V Roger, Keepers etc.

Another vote for Blackmoor – we've had really good quality trees and bushes from them.

For a plum, consider Jubilee – good for both eating and cooking, and we get good sized ones even in Scotland. (Most years; this year was not a good one!) We just have the one, as it's a self-fertile plum.

Plum could be good especially now its getting more difficult to buy Victorias in the shops. But going to a nursery gives the option to try a variety which is good for your locality (Which begs the question of why I am growing Cornish Aromatic apples in Yorkshire )

We just have the one, as it's a self-fertile plum. Good point - always check the pollination of what you're considering - do you need to have a second tree, of a different variety, to pollinate it?

Have you thought of Fig?

Thanks all. I've been looking at the suggested sites this morning and I think I've now narrowed it down to plum, cherry (maybe a Stella) or a red apple.

I have seen a lot of trees described as "colt", what does this mean? Is this the sort of tree I want or not? I'd like it to quickly establish and not be a tall stick in the garden for years (I had these two cherry trees a couple of years ago from a local nursery down south that never grew past "tall stick"), but I don't want it growing so high it overshadows the neighbours!

If you can put up a decent trellis, passion flowers are vigorous, fairly hardy and evergreen. The flowers are gorgeous and its easy to find varieties that have edible fruits. They are also easy to replace, you just sow the seeds.

And yes, definitely looking at self fertile!

Oh that's interesting!

If you like plums that would be my number 1 choice because you will get a hefty crop of fruit you can eat or freeze.
Anything more exotic will just be for decoration.
I had a passionflower and they do well, in fact they are rampant and the flowers are lovely but the fruit was poor so while I would plant one it would be in addition to a fruit tree. I dug mine out because it took over the corner I put it in.

I think colt refers to the rootstock that the tree has been grown from and it determines the eventual size and how vigorous the tree grows.

Once you have decided all.the things you need from this tree and the maximum size the area will take you'd be best speaking to a fruit tree nursery to establish what to buy.

I always feel if it's going to be a proper feature in your garden it's worth getting it absolutely right , even if it costs a bob or two. It's not like it's being dumped on some unseen part of your garden in the hope it will bear fruit.

For example, we often buy cheap plants from supermarkets and see how they go, but when I bought a climbing rose to grow over a specific obelisk I called David Austin Roses and decided what to buy following their advice. I still had choice but we narrowed it down so it was completely suitable for what we wanted.

The magnolia we bought as the retirement present was £65 but its been worth every penny as its beautiful, healthy, and had been growing for a few years so was established and a few years ahead of the game.

👋

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/plants-blogs/plants/october-2014/starline-apples

Stepover apples are also a possibility

https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/apples/stepover-training

🧑‍🌾

Things to bear in mind -

Cherries tend to hate clay, so research a dwarf rootstock that is clay tolerant. It took 3 failures before we got one that could cope with the clay here.

“Colt” rootstock gives a roughly 6 metre tall tree, so if you go for that, make sure you have room.

Plums, apples and pears are all very happy in our climate; peaches and nectarines want a lot of shelter and warmth to thrive so will not fruit in many areas.

Pigeons are bastards. They will strip the blossom and tiny green fruit off a cherry tree in a weekend, so if you want fruit, net them off.

Quince (not flowering quince, the fruiting ones) have lovely fuzzy early leaves, gorgeous fragile blossom, and bright yellow leaves with crimson veining in autumn so a very worth planting among more “normal” fruit trees for sheer beauty all year.

Greengages tend to do 10,000 fruit ripe in the same fortnight then nothing for 2-3 years. They are delicious plums but it’s feast or famine.

I agree that Blackmoor have always provided excellent fruit trees, including more unusual ones.

I prefer an eating apple like a Russet or one of the lesser known varieties to a cooking apple in the garden because everyone always has Bramleys about but not many gardens have a decent dessert apple.

I'm currently looking at either an espalier or fanned fruit tree/s. You can also buy bareroot and train them yourself, but longer before fruiting.
I'm looking at fig and an apricot. Moor park is an apricot which is apparently more tolerant of UK weather, but mine is going in the greenhouse.