Apple trees available for planting now
News story by Joe Hashman – May 2026
If you were lucky enough to have planted one of the half-price apple trees which Shaftesbury Orchard Town was able to supply via the Tree Group these last couple of winters then you may have witnessed, or be witnessing, the blossoming of your young beauty. If so, enjoy the flowers, but keep an eye on them. When fruits set you’ll notice tiny embryo apples starting to form. It sounds counter-intuitive, but for the long-term benefit of your tree, pick them off as soon as possible. Give your charge a couple of years grace, to get established and build some strength, before allowing it to produce food. Be patient. As my Dad always said, “If it’s worth having it’s worth waiting for”.
Is it just me, or does blossom seem to be the best yet each time Spring comes around? Maybe it’s because we’re all getting older? I find it totally amazing and utterly humbling that after a long cold, long wet, or long cold and wet winter, reliably and without any prompting from us, shoots and flowers stretch and burst in the most incredible display of natural magic.
Long may it continue.
Anyway, some good news; we’ve got six more apple trees available, on a first-come-first-served basis. They’re all growing in pots so can be planted anytime, including right now, and they’re all on either vigorous or semi vigorous rootstocks, so expect trees that might reach four-and-a-half to six metres if left unchecked, though of course all trees that want to grow tall can be kept small with regular pruning.
First off we’ve got King Of The Pippins; similar to the well-known Cox apple, but easier to grow and with good resistance to a common apple ailment called ‘scab’. King Of The Pippins is an all-rounder. Picked in October and stored ‘til Feb, it’ll sweeten with age. King Of The Pippins is very popular with cider makers and, in the kitchen, holds its shape well when cooked.
Annie Elizabeth is another excellent, sweet-flavoured cooking apple, regarded by some as the very best for baking and stewing. She has distinctive, attractive maroon blossom. Her fruit is yellow, flushed orange-red with short red stripes. Annie Elizabeth shows excellent disease resistance and is very tolerant to cold and wet.
Saturn is a modern variety which was developed in Kent in 1997, with excellent resistance to most common apple diseases. Beneath a lime green skin which is covered by a deep red flush the flesh of Saturn is firm to bite, and sweet with a juicy dollop of acidity.
Tydemans Late Orange is a great eating apple if you want homegrown fruit right through winter until spring. In December it’s intensely rich, aromatic and sharp. Flavours mellow in storage but come up mild and sweet even into April. Be aware, however, that Tydemans Late Orange has a tendency to biennial bear, which means it crops every other year.
Kingston Black hails from Somerset and makes a fantastic single variety cider and/or juice. The cider connoisseur is best advised to ‘sweat’ their harvest of small, dark pieces in a cool, dry place for ten days to mellow the intense, aromatic, bitter-sharp flavours before processing.
The last apple we’ve currently got available is an unidentified variety which grows in the garden of White House Farm, just off the Gillingham Road between Enmore Green and Motcombe. I’m reliably informed that it’s a wonderful eating, or ‘dessert’, apple. This is a three year old specimen which is currently smothered with blossom.
If you’re interested in giving a forever home to one or more of these edible trees, please get in touch. We will ask for a small donation of £10 each towards the Shaftesbury Orchard Town project, in recognition of the skill and time given by our grafting team who’ve done the work and nurtured these trees over the previous three to five years. But think about it – for the price of two cups of coffee on the High Street you could have apples in abundance for the rest of your life.
Oh, and one other thing; if you’ve got a young or recently planted tree in your garden, please please please keep watering it. A full big bucket or watering can at least once a week. And keep this simple but vital action consistent all summer, even when it rains. You’ve invested in your future, so it makes sense to look after it.
Enquiries to Shaftesbury Orchard Town can be made via Shaftesbury Tree Group at planetshaftesbury@gmail.com or visit the website planetshaftesbury.org
