Fruit Trees & Bushes
Frankie’s first cider was pressed with a digger and cost her mum a blender. It turned out well, mostly by luck. Here is how to take the luck out of it: what sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp apples do, and which varieties to plant.
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Blog
Why bare-root season is the time to start growing your own fruit A stack of tins will see you through three days…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Apple Day is 21 October, marking Britain's apple diversity since 1990. Plant a fruit tree this autumn and grow your own piece of orchard history.
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Blog
It's the email (or rather, the panicked photo) we get every single year: a bundle of twigs, looking about as lively as…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Everything beginners need for growing soft fruit in the UK — planting, soil prep, pruning, feeding and harvesting raspberries, currants, blueberries and blackberries.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Discover the best soft fruit to grow in the UK: expert variety picks, seasonal planning, and growing tips for raspberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, and more.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Learn how and when to prune fruit trees correctly — apples, pears, plums, cherries, quinces and more. Expert UK advice from Ashridge Trees.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Learn how to grow fruit trees in the UK: rootstocks, planting, pruning, pollination, and variety advice for apples, pears, plums, cherries, and quinces.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Discover the best fruiting cherry tree varieties for UK gardens. Expert advice on sweet vs sour cherries, self-fertile varieties, rootstocks & growing tips.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
There’s something wonderfully comforting about turning a modest harvest into handmade Christmas gifts. A simple, cosy kitchen moment—shared with the warmth you’d expect from Planting Advice since 1949.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Whether you’re filling a gap in the hedge, planting a show-stopping cherry, or creating a cosy “room” with copper beech, our Guaranteed Plants That Grow make it easy.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Pollination is key to a bumper fruit crop, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Benefit from Advice from Experts and Guaranteed Plants That Grow to make your orchard thrive.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Rootstocks shape how fruit trees grow, and with our expertise, you don’t need to worry. From Bushes and Half Standards to Maidens and Cordons, we provide guaranteed plants that grow and guidance from Plant Experts to ensure every tree thrives in your garden or orchard.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Can you grow apple trees above 500 feet? Absolutely — with the right site and care. Learn how slope, wind, soil, and shelter affect fruit trees in higher altitudes, and how to avoid frost damage while keeping your orchard thriving. Reliable, down-to-earth advice from Professional Plant Suppliers at Ashridge.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Choosing the right size fruit tree makes all the difference to your harvest. Whether you’re planting a compact Bush tree for a small garden, a grand Half-Standard for open space, or training a Maiden into an espalier or cordon, we’ll help you pick the perfect fit. Step-by-step guidance from Experts in Bareroot Plants at Ashridge ensures success from the start.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Whether for hedging or forestry, bare-root stock outperforms container-grown plants in almost every way. Ashridge Nurseries explains why planting dormant, field-grown hedging and trees during the winter months saves money, benefits the environment, and produces stronger, more vigorous plants. From superior root development to easier planting and reduced risk of pests, discover why Ashridge – The Voice of Experience recommends bare-root stock for lasting success in your garden.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
This is just about pruning cordons - there is a much longer piece on growing cordon fruit trees if you would like…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
We get lots of enquiries about growing fruit trees in the UK at altitude, often from people who have seen the magnificent…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Homemade Elderberry SyrupThe Recipe:This is our family recipe, and we think it makes the best elderberry syrup we have ever tasted.Pick the…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
When you have enough Elderflower Cordial you might like to think about Elderflower Champagne. By the way, it is a good excuse…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Make a unique Jelly from Country Hedges & Wild PlantsThis recipe uses fruit commonly found in mixed hedges and wild plants (identify…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
How about pheasant with caramelised apple and cider sauce!Pheasant cosies up with a fruity double act of apples and cider for a…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Homemade Elderflower Cordial RecipeLate May - June is Elderflower time!Elderflower cordial in the shops is expensive and can be a bit sickly…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Orchard wassailing is an indigenous English ritual with records dating back as far as the 11th century, and is still performed by…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Wiltshire-based garden designer Dan Combes wonders why there aren't more berries, especially in urban areas and their small gardens where a fruit…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
What is the difference between a cobnut and a filbert? Are they the same thing, with regional variations of nomenclature? Quick Answers…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Do you have a freezer full of blackberries? If not, then ignore the blackberry & enjoy your apple crumble! This time of…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
As a company, we have invested billions (approximately) in producing nicely edited videos about planting and pruning fruit trees Rodney, local movie…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
There’s nothing quite like the fresh, tangy flavour of home-grown raspberries, and what better way to enjoy them than in delicious raspberry…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
There’s Nothing Quite Like Baking with Home-Grown Apples in your Apple Muffin Recipe. Their fresh, crisp flavour brings out the best in…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
With Homegrown FigsThere’s nothing quite as jammy as the satisfaction of your own fig jam crafted from fig you grew yourself in…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Grafting is one of Mankind’s ancient technologies, generally done in Spring onto rootstocks planted a full year ago, or mature trees Grafting…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Apple pollination is usually not a concern in the UK, because there are so many orchard and crab apple trees around However,…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
What are these brown spots on my quince tree’s leaves and fruit? Quince Leaf Blight is the fungus Diplocarpon mespili, which ruin…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
What is Apple Scab and Pear Scab?Apple Scab and Pear Scab are functionally the same, although the specific fungus is different: Apple…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
There is no need to be afraid of Silver Leaf disease, which rarely affects Cherry and Plum trees in gardens, and even…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Plum Fruit split is a condition, not a disease, where the fruit is damaged by splits in the skin. Although they tend…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Yes, but…Yes, you can grow a fruit tree from a seed or stone obtained from fruit in the supermarket, but you will…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
How to Grow BlueberriesBlueberry plants require acidic soil, pH 5.5 or below, that is moist yet free draining, with lots of rich…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Planting Blackberries Blackberry bushes tolerate most growing conditions found in the UK, and benefit greatly from anything to grow on for support,…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Blackberry bushes are easy to cut back, this page is not here to overcomplicate things.It’s just a matter of choosing what works…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
How to Grow Blackcurrants BushesBlackcurrants are simple to grow, and the pruning regime is a bit different from pruning Red & Whitecurrants.…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Gooseberry bushes are pruned almost exactly the same way as Red & Whitecurrant bushes.Pruning is so important for getting good crops of…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Currants are some of the most easily grown, and also pretty, little soft fruit bushes. Red & whitecurrants are grown differently from…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Rhubarb plants are perfect for beginners & low-maintenance lovers. For best results, we recommend that you dig your patch over at least…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
When you order bareroot strawberry plants from us, you can either plant them straight outside in your strawberry beds and planters, or…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Intro to Raspberry GrowingThese point apply to almost all our raspberry plants: They fruit very heavily. Their fruit has an extremely high…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
How to Apply Winter Wash to Fruit TreesIt’s good to apply winter wash to your fruit and ornamental trees in the winter…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
The most popular fig variety in the UK for getting fruit from is the ‘Brown Turkey’ fig.The instructions for ‘Brown Turkey’ apply…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Essential Aftercare & Maintenance for Good CropsClean Up Leaves & PruningsWhen the crop is in, and winter is knocking on the door,…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Two Ways to Find Pollination Partners The main Pollination Checker Tool makes it easy for you to find partners for individual fruit…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
When to Prune Crab Apple TreesThis video demonstrates a crab apple tree, and the same principles apply to a lot of other…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Applying fruit tree grease from November onwards is used to trap a wide variety of winter moths before they can lay their…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Grease Bands are Convenient on Young Fruit TreesIf you apply grease bands to your young fruit trees, it will help prevent winter…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Formative pruning of new, freestanding fruit trees, starts with either unbranched Maidens, or young Bushes or Half Standards with a further year’s…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Fruit Trees & Bushes
Choosing Pollination Partners for Pear Trees Use our easy pollination checking tool to quickly find pollination partners for a given pear tree,…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Can I make cider from eating and cooking apples?Yes, all apples make cider, but the flavours from cider apples are better: most…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Many Plums Are Reliably Self FertileMost plums are either reliably self fertile or partially self fertile, so pollination is much less of…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Pollinating your Apple Trees Increases your crop Size Most apple trees need to be pollinated in order to bear fruit, and even…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
We grow a good range of self fertile sweet cherry trees that do not need to be pollinated. However, more than half…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
To graft your own fruit trees, you can buy Apple, Pear, Cherry, and Plum rootstocks from us.Grafting is the only way to…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
The British climate makes for ideal apple territory.They like well drained, fertile soil including clay, and with shelter can grow inland at…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Fruit Tree PlantingWatch our step-by-step video showing you how to plant bush or half-standard sized fruit tree with a small 120cm tree…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Fruit Trees & Bushes
Grow Conference, then Comice, then Concorde.
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Cordons are compact wire trained fruit trees, usually apple or pear
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
The Best Plum Tree Pruning VideosPlums are vigorous trees and respond well to pruning. If they are not pruned, they quickly get…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Apple Tree Varieties Suitable for Scotland & the NorthApple trees are incredibly hardy, however, their flowers can be damaged in freezing weather,…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Most Apples are spur bearing; partial tips are like spursMost apples and pears are spur bearing: they are pruned “normally”, and are…
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
Cordon apples & pears are even better suited to grafting than freestanding trees
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Fruit Trees & Bushes
One of our customers, M, got in touch with a fruit tree pollination question, asking about the difference between: Not self-fertile Partially…
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