[madchickenlady]

Where I can I buy a selection of fruit bushes/canes at reasonable prices but still reasonable quality. (I know, I want it all)  I want to start a fruit garden so don't want to spend huge amounts per plant, but want to have a good selection of fruits across the seasons. This is a new venture so all advice welcome. 

[Lesley Silvester]

I'm going to order some from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. they're not the cheapest but their quality is good.

[HesterF]

I don't know what a reasonable price is really - they always seem a bargain to me given how long they live and how much they produce. I've got a few freebies from my mum who had random ones growing around the place, some from the local garden centre and some from Keepers nursery (www.keepers-nursery.co.uk) which is where I got all my fruit trees from. They sell them for about £5 - £6 per bare root plant which seems good value to me although I'm sure you can get them cheaper elsewhere. They will also replace for free if they don't take - I got three types of raspberry from them last year and one lot failed entirely so they've replaced them this year.

H

[suziequeue]

Keepers is good. The other thing is to just buy one good one of each variety and propagate that. In my experience currant bushes propagate very easily indeed - as easily as willow.


 A couple of years ago OH "accidentally" uprooted a big old unkempt black currant bush behind the old polytunnel. It had already been lying there for almost a week by the time I came home. Naively, I just cut off a load of twigs/branches and stuck them in pots. They all rooted and I now have a row of about twenty black currant bushes which are doing really well.


Granted - the propagation route takes time - but it's very rewarding and you know that you'll have a variety that does well on your soil.

[Big Light]

Keep an eye out for lidls and aldis in the spring

[madchickenlady]

Thanks all. 

[Fleecewife]

Keepers is good. The other thing is to just buy one good one of each variety and propagate that. In my experience currant bushes propagate very easily indeed - as easily as willow.


 A couple of years ago OH "accidentally" uprooted a big old unkempt black currant bush behind the old polytunnel. It had already been lying there for almost a week by the time I came home. Naively, I just cut off a load of twigs/branches and stuck them in pots. They all rooted and I now have a row of about twenty black currant bushes which are doing really well.


Granted - the propagation route takes time - but it's very rewarding and you know that you'll have a variety that does well on your soil.

 
Black and red currant bushes, gooseberries and brambles can readily be propagated by rooting the tips.  Pin a few tips down into the soil or large pots and by next year you will have lots of sturdy rooted plants waiting to have their connection to the parent plant cut.  I think they will start fruiting sooner than cuttings.
Rasps will pop up all over the place on their own and soon become a nightmare to control.
Rhubarb can be divided (now) although it will take a few years for the roots to be big enough to do that.  I know it's not a fruit but it usually has a place in a fruit garden.
 
It's worth paying for good disease free stock to give you a good start, then bulk up as Suziequeue suggests.  I got my originals from Deacons (I think that's the name) on the Isle of Wight - very helpful.
 
Strawberries are definitely not worth skimping on.  Don't accept spare runners from friends and neighbours as they are likely to be carrying disease, Botrytis at the very least, so buy in fresh stock every third year. Once you get strawberry diseases in your soil it's difficult to clean it up.  Any of the plant/seed companies will have a good selection which don't cost much.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I bought some from £1.00 land and they're very good. Also Thompson and morgan sell fruit bushes.

[Lesley Silvester]

I didn't order any after all. I must get some for next year. Raspberries are my favourite soft fruit.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I didn't order any after all. I must get some for next year. Raspberries are my favourite soft fruit.

Here is the link, they have an offer at the moment. http://www.thompson-morgan.com/fruit/fruit-plants/raspberry-plants

[ellied]

I have several blackcurrants in the garden and a couple new ones in pots, plus a whitecurrant, tayberry, couple new rasp varieties and a domesticated thornless giant blackberry.  I assume as they're flowering I should leave them in the pots til they've fruited now and dig them in come autumn?

What I don't yet have is a redcurrant, I fancy one as a climber on the southfacing front wall but it's quite gravelly there and the rones overflow so not sure whether to put it in a dryer place or the most damp downfall point?

Will definitely be propagating the currants and goosies now I know they work that way, thanks.  My planted raspberry from 2 years ago appears to have taken over half the herb bed, plus one behind it, so I may need a new location and/or hints on separating and replanting heavy pruned canes at some point   for now I just hope to get to the fruit before the birds do

[Lesley Silvester]

Raspberries do take over the garden if you let them. That is how I ended up with none. The original plants were very old and hardly fruiting so I took them out and also removed all the canes that had sprung up where I didn't want them, the year I was too ill do do anything with the garden. I have since planted two lots of canes passed on by other people and they haven't taken.


I was in my local garden centre today and saw some raspberry plants in pots at £6.99 each. that's quite a bit more that the bare rooted ones I seen on the internet but they look very sturdy. I'm now debating whether to get some and plant them ready for next year.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

That's cheap I have to pay a lot more for full grown bushes.