2022 Completed courses wite ups here
Blended courses- online & in person
Grafting a Family Apple Tree - 2024
For those who have attended one of the other grafting courses only.
A chance to graft a family tree with several scions from our collection, or ones you bring yourself. Number of graft sites will vary from tree to tree.
A family tree allows you to have several cultivars on one tree, including pears where an interscion is used.
Starting in year one you will select and plan your tree. This part if offered online during Spring 2023.
Cost £35
In the second year you will start grafting the tree with different cultivars. Thinking about how to balance and shape the tree.
£35
Year 3 & 4 we revisit the tree if you wish to plan its progress.
£20 per year.
Brewing with Apples
BARNACK ORANGE
Raised by Mr. W.H. Divers, head gardener at Belvoir castle, Leics. Deliberate cross : Barnack Beauty x Cox's Orange Pippin. A very good eating apple, similar to Barnack Beauty but sweeter and ripens earlier. It has a rich aromatic flavour. It stores until about February.
ANNIE ELIZABETH
Very firm, late cooking apple which keeps well. Tree is very upright in habit. Blossom is said in many reference books to be unusually pretty, and descriptions range from 'deep red' to 'deep pink' to 'maroon'.
BELVOIR SEEDLING
Apple raised by W.H. Divers, probably at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire. Received by the National Fruit Trials in 1935. Fruits have firm, fine flesh with a sweet to subacid flavour. Synonym: Belvoir Castle. National Fruit Collection Accession Number: 1935-008 Dessert apple, Annie Elizabeth (female) в Dumelow's Seedling (male). Flowering: 10% open: 9th May, Fully open: 14th May , 90% over: 22nd May . Picking time: Mid September; stores about a fortnight.
MARTIN'S COSTARD
Fruit medium sized, two inches and three quarters wide and two and a half high: roundish, ribbed on the sides, and with ridges round the crown which extend into the basin of the eye. Skin greenish yellow, mottled with red on the shaded side, and considerably streaked with dark crimson and with a violet bloom on the side next the sun. Eye, small, quite closed, set in a narrow puckered basin. Stalk, very short, sometimes a mere fleshy knob, and sometimes woody with a fleshy swelling on one side. Flesh, yellowish, firm, crisp, juicy and briskly acid. An excellent culinary apple: in use from October to Christmas.
DUMLOW'S SEEDLING
originating in Shackerstone. Also known as Wellington. Large, flattish fruit related to Lane's Prince Albert (q.v.). Pale green becoming yellow; some orange mottling. Was a very popular cooking apple; now superseded by Bramley, but still very popular in private gardens. Scented apple. Pick early October; will keep until April. Raised by Richard Dumelow, a Shackerstone farmer, in late 1700s. Late keeper; sometimes keeps until May
LANGTON'S NONSUCH
Fruit middle sized, of a very regular round figure, and free from angles on its sides, about two inches and a half in diameter, and two inches and a quarter deep. Eyp small, with a short, closed calyx, in a very regular, rather shallow, saucer-shaped basin, without plaits. Stalk short, slender, inserted in a shallow cavity, seldom projecting beyond the base. Skin pale yellow, spotted and marbled with orange, with numerous broken stripes and patches of brick-red on the sunny side.
LEICESTER BURTON PIPPIN
Fruit, below medium size, two inches and an eighth wide, and two inches and a half high ; conical, uneven in its outline, narrowing from the middle both towards the stalk and the crown, and obscurely ribbed on the sides ; it has a waist near the crown. Skin, quite smooth, pale straw colour, and sometimes with a faint tinge of blush next the sun
PRINCE CHARLES
Dessert, September-October. Lord Lambourne x Cox's Orange Pippin. Raised between 1940 and 1945 at Victoria Nurseries, Burbage, Leicestershire, by Herbert Robinson. Joan Morgan's book describes the taste as follows: "Fruits have creamy white flesh with a sweet, slightly subacid, slightly aromatic flavour"
MARRIAGE MAKER
Fruit, small, about two inches and a quarter wide, and two inches high ; roundish, and somewhat depressed, even and regular in its outline. Skin, smooth, entirely crimson, even on the shaded side. Eye, small, with erect convergent segments, set in a basin, which is slightly plaited. Stamens, marginal ; tube, conical. Stalk, short and slender, placed in a shallow cavity. Flesh, yellowish, slightly tinged with red at the eye and under the skin, pleasantly flavoured
QUEEN CAROLINE
aised and distributed by Mr. T. Brown, nurseryman of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He had land in Measham where his seedlings were raised, c. 1820. Large apple, cooker, brisk, well flavoured. Named after Geo. IV's wife. Keeps till Xmas.
SWEETINGS
My father remembers these apples from about sixty years ago; his grandfather used to have a tree. The fruit were very small, mainly yellowish, sweet, and very early.
ST AILRED
from Mount St. Bernard Abbey, Coalville, c.1942. James Grieve x Ellison's Orange. Tastes a bit like James Grieve, resembles Ellison's Orange. Quite sweet, juicy, soft; cream flesh but taste can be a bit medicinal. Skin tougher than James Grieve. Pick and eat in Sept; doesn't really keep.
A massive thank you for asking me to be part of the trial of the online session. I found it incredibly informative and fun to do with very clear instruction. It's a delicate process but easily followed with your careful and clear direction. I am now the proud owner of a Queen Caroline and a prince Charles apple graft.
Caroline Leicestershire
I would thoroughly recommend this course. It is informative, you get to learn a skill and it is fun. Best of all after the course you have two grafted Leicestershire Heritage apples to care for and watch as they bud and grow into heritage apple trees. It is extremely satisfying and a little addictive. I will be back for more.
Nat Leicester