UK Fruit tree suppliers

As a shameless knock off of the thread on seeds. Who do you buy fruit trees from?

I'm particularly interested in apple espaliers, pears and plums.

I bought my orchard apple trees from Keepers nursery: https://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/
I think the main reason I used them was they had all the apple varieties I wanted on vigorous rootstock, and I even managed to get one on it's own rootstock. That meant that the postage for me was less than if I had shopped around different places to get the varieties I wanted. Knowing what the postage was likely to be is always a sticky point for me - sometimes much higher than the values of the plants I'm buying, due to courier costs to Skye.
The trees were in good condition and have done as well as can be expected considering my location and the planting site.

James Alun wrote:As a shameless knock off of the thread on seeds. Who do you buy fruit trees from?

I'm particularly interested in apple espaliers, pears and plums.

Hi James

Walcott nursery are an organic nursery local to me but will post to elsewhere in the country  and have a good selection of cultivars.  Just order sooner rather than later as they usually sell out of some stock.

walcotnursery.co.uk/

I've heard good things about Ty Rhos here in Pembrokeshire. I'm hoping to use them this winter to plant a mixed orchard. I will check out Keepers too though

When I lived in the UK, Martin Crawford's Agroforestry site was the one for me.  Even after I moved to France he used to ship trees abroad, until Brexit and everything went to shit.

https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/

No specific recommendation, but I have been annoyed in the past at the difficulty of getting fruit trees on non-dwarfing rootstock. They are all targeted at the typical consumer/gardener with a small space.

So this year I have ordered my own M25 rootstock for apples. I'm going to be stooling it, to make my own supply of rootstocks which I will then use to graft my own.

Michael, wow now that's a project!

I'm guessing you've got space and are in for the long haul with that.

I hope your new orchard? goes well.

James Alun wrote:I'm guessing you've got space and are in for the long haul with that.

I actually think any tree needs space and time to reach it's potential! Wishing for instant results often causes problems. I would be very interested to hear how you get on though Michael, please post as you go. I guess it adds an extra couple of year on the 'planting a tree' bit, but I also wanted more vigorous rootstocks. My trees have enough to contend with soil and weather, without having roots starving them as well, at least that's how I see dwarfing rootstocks. I'm grafting onto crab apple and seedling rootstocks in the hopes of more vigour and diversity...One tree fruited this year so I'll find out hopefully which graft took (not very good at record keeping here...)

Hoping for a good yield on my Tom Putt this year (fingers crossed)

We are on chalk soil. All the dwarfing fruit trees need sturdy staking for life, because they collapse under their own weight without it. I'm just not interested in nursing such trees along. We have the space, and are definitely not leaving this place. I have about an acre which I would like to gradually transition to silvo-pasture; The sheep come in for a couple of day a year and dwarfing trees get eaten, where standards will not.

Steve Marquis posted some good suppliers on this post on the seed suppliers thread:
https://permies.com/t/176540/UK-Seed-companies-favourites#1676091