Posted in Fruit Questions on December 29, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Does anyone know where large, fully mature fruit trees, such as apple, can be bought? I mean fully mature, say, 30-40 year old trees.
Transplantation of very large trees (of all species) seems to be more and more commonplace these days. The company ‘Standard Trees’ in Sussex supplies mature trees as a matter of course: [...]
Posted in Brogdale, National Fruit Collections on December 26, 2007 | 1 Comment »
In the very last issue of Fruit News to be published I wrote ‘… if the Trust did indeed lose control of the Collections, it would, so far as I can see, leave the Friends [of Brogdale Horticultural Trust] in limbo - for we would have no connection with the new controller of the Collections, [...]
Posted in Articles on December 24, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Browsing second-hand bookshops in London last week I came upon another reference to Edward Bunyard’s interest in cultivating scented violets. Is there no limit to his activities? Yet it is not really surprising that Bunyard also collected violets, for like the old varieties of roses and apples, it was a flower that would have [...]
Posted in Brogdale, National Fruit Collections on December 23, 2007 | 1 Comment »
It is very good news indeed that the National Fruit Collections are to remain at Brogdale. Thank you all so much for your support in the campaign to keep the Collections in their established home. Thank you for the letters you wrote to Defra, to your MPs and to Lord Rooker, your signatures to our [...]
Posted in Brogdale, National Fruit Collections on December 19, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Defra announced today, 19 December, that the National Fruit Collections will remain at Brogdale for the foreseeable future. The contract for their management has been awarded to the University of Reading, which will take over their maintenance and curation from April 2008.
In the press release from Defra, Lord Rooker has said ‘The long term [...]
Posted in Brogdale, National Fruit Collections on December 18, 2007 | No Comments »
At a meeting of the Kent County Council Cabinet on Monday, 17 December, the future of the National Fruit Collections was discussed.
As a result Councillor and cabinet member, Roger Gough, has written to Lord Rooker and Defra in a letter which ’represents Kent County Council’s official position and supersedes any previous communication’, referring, one presumes, [...]
Posted in Brogdale, National Fruit Collections on December 13, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, 12 December, Kent County Council Scrutiny Committee unanimously agreed that they would write to the Defra Minister in support of retaining the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale. They also agreed to refer the matter back to KCC Cabinet as a matter of urgency in the hope that Cabinet would also support the retention [...]
Posted in Brogdale, National Fruit Collections on December 10, 2007 | 1 Comment »
A decision is anticipated by the end of the year from Defra on the National Fruit Collections and Brogdale: that is whether the Collections will remain at Brogdale or be moved elsewhere and who will be their managers in the future. We understand that there are five bidders for this Defra tender - three who [...]
Posted in Fruit Questions on December 4, 2007 | 2 Comments »
I first saw pear rust in my orchard in Nottinghamshire three years ago on the leaves of a Doyenné du Comice tree, and it is rapidly spreading . My scab spray programme has controlled it, but I only spray those trees sensitive to scab. Beurré Bedford is scab resistant, but has proved to [...]
