[artscott]

I don’t know if anyone is interested but I was in Asda and noticed that they were selling bare root fruit trees off at £2.50 each.  They had apple, pear, plumb, cherry, apricot, and peach, including cox and bramley apples.
I couldn’t resist and brought 15 trees in a mix, I figure at that price I can’t really go wrong even if I lose a few or have to purchase a couple of normal price trees to ensure pollination groups are covered

[denmylne]

try planting some scots heritage pears

black auchen pears are probably of norwiegen origin and will survive well in colder climes, fruit not ready in fife until december

choose an early pear, lindores or crawford, in poor cold wet, springs this summer fruit will last on the branch until summer

pm me if you want some

ps,, rootstock 98p each, scions material free, if you can sharpen a pencil, you can graft yourself

a lot cheaper than aldis, with the added benefit of about 1000 years of trial and error growing pear trees in scotland, the orchardist with the real knowledge have long since died out.....but the trees remain, the scions i collect are from trees over 200 years old

[Workhorse]

Excuse my ignorance but what are scions? and how do you pronounce that?

[denmylne]

pronounced, si-ons
scion material or cultivars, are last years growth on a fruit tree.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13764153

this is the original bramley, all bramley apple trees are effectively clones of this one tree, the scions are collected and drafted onto rootstock, crab apple etc

pears can be grafted onto wild pear, quince, white thorn etc rootstock. this is why fruit trees bought in shops look so different from plants grown from seed. technically speaking, if you buy a 1 year old bramley from asda, it is already 200 years old