Scottish Orchards can help preserve varieties of Scottish apples, plums and pears, and develop skills in pruning, grafting needed to preserve fruit trees for the future. We can help schools, community groups, councils, farmers, landowners and companies to make Scotland more fruitful

See useful resources:

Scottish and Heritage Fruit tree varieties

School Orchards - Fruitful Schools

School orchard offers for Scotland 

We aim to make fruit growing simple. We want to encourage people to give it a try and get started - and to learn by doing, and with help from each other. Please join us and help make Scotland blossom!

Our membership is very varied - from National Trust for Scotland staff, to the Salvation Army, community workers environmental groups, and also keen individuals and groups from Argyll  to Oban, and from Inverness to Stranraer. Membership is free - but we are grateful for donations from members - and this is very helpful for building.

Here is the JOIN UP FORM to download

Scottish Orchards can help with all aspects of developing school orchard and community orchards, listing Fruitful Events, providing Fruitful Skills training, and running apple days and community and family days. We are also interested in creating a market for scottish fruit and to help develop fruit growing in Scotland, and providing support to growers.

Please email us details of any upcoming apple days, planting, picking events and places with fruit to sell.

We are can help to provide fruit trees suitable for Scotland’s climate - and looking to develop old and very varieties that do well here, and make them available at a good price.

Please email or phone to discuss membership, volunteering with us, or in developing school or community orchards.

 

John Hancox, John@scottishorchards.com

0778 606 3918

this may be of interest in making

2012 a Fruitful year

Fruitful Scotland Scottish Fruit trees for schools and communities

www.scottishfruittrees.com and www.fruitfulschool.com

Commonwealth Heritage & Scottish Fruit Trees

We supply high quality and delicious fruit trees of a good size, well adapted for the Scottish climate. Apple trees are on either M26 or MMIO6 rootstock ((semi-dwarfing) available for deliver from late Nov 2011 at the start of the tree planting season. We do not recommend more dwarfing varieties for Scotland as they lack the necessary robustness to thrive. Pears and Plums will also be supplied on semi dwarfing rootstock. Trees will be available Nov – March but ordering as soon as is highly recommended to ensure best selection and an early delivery. Please phone or email first to check availability)

Trees cost £15.00 per tree. Larger orders (over 50 trees) may be priced individually. Stakes, Ties, Labels and other supplies can be supplied with order for customers collecting. Trees can be collected from Glasgow – larger orders can be delivered by arrangement. Postage and packing £15 per bundle of up to 8 trees. Please contact us, for help with stock selection and other queries.

Orders should be prepaid prior to release of goods. Send Complete Order form with cheque payable to “The Children’s Orchard.” 75 Clouston St, Glasgow G20 8QW, 0778 606 3918 John@commonwealthorchard.com

INTRODUCTORY OFFER Valid until Feb 2012 – SCOTTISH ORCHARD KIT Our selection of 8 delicious fruit trees (4 apple, 2 plum, 2 Pears, plus planting instructions) suitable for Scottish gardens, schools and community groups – only £119, Inc P&P / Special 6 tree orchard £99 inc P&P

You might also be interested in how orchards fit with climate change as well as building fruitful communities - see attached

A fruitful Scotland – John Hancox

In the past few years, through my work with the Commonwealth Orchard, I’ve has been encouraging planting of trees and orchards across Scotland, and I’m delighted to be able to say that it’s an idea that is literally now, bearing fruit. Over the past days I’ve picked my first plum of the season, (an Early Rivers, and the apples and other fruit seem to be coming on well.

We have been involved in planting over 150 school orchards and dozens of community orchards amounting to thousands of trees. One of the interesting aspects of this is also how the planting of an initial orchard has led in various places to other grow your own initiatives. A good example is the Urban Roots project in south Glasgow, which evolved from an orchard planting undertaken in 2007.

I was struck at a recent Scottish Orchards Gathering by some research quoted by John Butterworth, which shows that the most significant thing people can do to reduce their carbon footprint, is to grow some of their own food. Apart from reducing food miles it also leads people to changing their behaviour, and to reducing waste. And I find from my point of view is it’s fun!

My interest in the contribution that orchard planting can make to reducing carbon output was increased when I was working with Dr Jim Paterson, who was working on a CCF funded orchard project in Tarbert,on the West Coast of Scotland. We supplied around 300 trees – selected to be suitable for the climate, and including many heritage varieties – and gave advice on planting a formative pruning. This year Jim has also added to this to create an Entire Kintyre Orchard - a great idea and I can see lots more regional orchards like this happening.

Jim said, “ For us, the Community Orchard project was extremely successful – and it really the key that opened the door to the community. People suddenly got really interested in the CCF project – it wasn’t just a couple of guys in beards monitoring energy use – it was a real winner in terms of getting people involved. Even months later we are still getting emails about the fruit trees and there’s a lot of competition between people how much fruit they are getting on their trees. It’s been an extremely positive part of the project – great value for money – and giving back a great deal more than just fruit. It’s really got people involved and talking.

Tarbert Orchard worked on the basis that trees could go where the community wanted them – the doctors surgery, the local school and various gardens. The Tarbert Orchard has helped to galvanise a small community on the west coast, but that is just a start. The popularity of the orchard project has led on to more ambitious plans for an Entire Kintyre Orchard – which links neatly into the bigger plans of Scottish Orchards to create a patchwork of orchards across Scotland.

This is of course just one of dozens of similar projects across Scotland. Jim’s calculations show that the Tarbert Orchard will reduce carbon emissions by tons, and also produce tonnes of delicious local healthy food in the process. It’s carbon reductions that are good enough to eat. It’s fun, and it’s a key to a fruitful future.

If you’d like to find out more – Jim Paterson’s report is on the www.scottishorchards.com website – and if you’d like help in developing your local orchard project, sourcing trees, or training on fruitful skills contact John Hancox, 0778 606 3918

Scottish apples including

The following list of known Scottish apple varieties is taken from the book ‘Apples in Scotland’, by John Butterworth (2001)

Alderman (?)

Beauty of Moray

Bloody Ploughman

Cambusnethan Pippin

Clydesdale

Coul Blush

Culzean Seedling

Cutler Grieve

East Lothian Pippin

Early Julyan (Tam Montgomery)

Galloway Pippin

Gogar Pippin

Hawthornden

Hill’s Seedling

Hood’s Supreme

James Grieve

Lady of the Wemyss

Lass O’Gowrie

Lemon Queen

Liddel’s Seedling

Lord Rosebery

Love Beauty

Maggie Sinclair

Oslin

Pine Golden Pippin

Port Allen Russet

Rock

Scarlet Leadington

Scotch Bridget

Scotch Dumpling

Scrog

Seaton House

Stark’s Late Delicious

Stirling Castle

Stobo Castle (?)

Thomas Jeffrey

Thorle Pippin

Threave Castle

Tower of Glamis

Warden

Weight

White Melrose

White Paradise

Yorkshire Aromatic (?

)It is not easy to determine the origins of some varieties of apples. Where they are denoted as ‘possible’ in the publication they are marked here with (?). Probable Clydesdale varieties are underlined.

Many of these varieties are available by mail order from specialist fruit tree nurseries (see Further Information.