The end of January, and I haven’t got all my apple trees pruned yet- but perhaps if next month’s going to be as cold as they say, that won’t matter. On the other hand, thanks to good friend Andy, the white mulberry that should have been a black mulberry has been cut down to its stocking tops, with logs now drying under cover. The trouble with mistakes like that is that they take so long to confirm!
The apple harvest continues here, with the first ever crop of Cowsnout apples on my grafted sapling
!st crop!
The grafted Arram White has survived all visissitudes so far, and has a healthy branch(let, I suppose I have to call it!) It has recently been joined by another, courtesy of the Northern Fruit Group’s top gafter, who worked miracles with the least promising scions ever! This looks much more robust, and I feel quite confident about the apple’s future in my garden now.
Can anyone identify this plant for me? I saw it in the garden at Burton Agnes Hall today, where it was wrongly identified as corncockle. Any better answers?
It grows to about 1 metre. The ‘spikes’ are not hard like an eryngium, It clearly self-seeds, as it had popped up in several places, mainly at the front of borders. Is it an annual? Is it poisonous?
It turned out to be a salsify plant!- so, useful, pretty, and I shall sow some of the seed.
In July, two very large very dead tree trunks , 12 foot high, fell from the boundary hedge onto our poor little Arram White! They were there for a good (bad!) three weeks, before being dismantled, but lo & behold, although the main graft had been smashed off the youngster, there was a tiny spur still there above the graft point. During August this grew an inch, then broke in to leaf. It now looks healthy, but we are not counting any chickens, believe me! There is a wire cage around it, food in the soil, and lots of conversation to encourage it. Fingers crossed, please, everyone.
Since my article was published, I’ve been able to track down two potential oldies of Yorkshire, the Arram White & the Cowsnout apples, and they are now on the Local Apple Register . Unfortunately, the Arram White is now under threat, as the farm on which it stands has just been up for sale, and a request fora TPO has failed, on the basis that the tree has old pruning wounds that have left it vulnerable to disease. This is sad, because it means that the only known mature example of this variety could be felled by the new owner, and its grafted progeny are still only very young saplings.
This is the nearest apple orchard to us; Beverley’s Millennium Orchard, in May.
Well worth a picnic on a sunny day.
