[allstars_princess]

Hello,

I run a gardening club for children aged 0-5 really simple growing classes with parent and child planting and growing their own.  I have just been given space at the side of the building to plant 4 fruit trees.  We already have an apple and a pear (do not know the variety as they were planted before I joined and nobody kept a note as they did not think it necessary!)  I was thinking of growing another 2 apples, 1 pear and plum so the children can enjoy a variety of fruit. 

Can anyone recommend:

1. Good varieties
2. Good supplier

The site is not a frost pocket and gets a decent amount of sun.  It faces East and is on the top of a high hill. 

[gillie]

Our best apple is Orleans Reinette.  We get good crops every year and the fruit will keep well into the New Year provided if it is stored in a cold place.  My other suggestion is for the cooking apple Howgate Wonder which produces fruit so huge that they give everyone a giggle.  To my mind it is a better apple than Bramley, good for juicing and not a triploid.

The pear could be Beurre Hardy, another good performer, and for the plum you probably cannot beat good old Victoria.

Hopefully your existing trees will pollinate the apples and pear and Victoria is self fertile.

For a supplier you could go to Chris Bowers or Keeper's Nursery, but there are plenty of others.

Cheers,

Gillie

[SG6]

As said Keepers are good and have a large range. If you want even more then Brogdale hold the national collection and will graft any of the 2000+ varieties they have on to whatever rootstock you want.

As the a variety, I have The Apple Book and it lists 60-70 varieties with illustrations and useful descriptions.

The Brogdale catalogue list all their varieties.

Whatever you get (apples) it may be best to aviod the triploids. Simply they are more vigerous and the pollination is a bit more complicated.

[sunshineband]

I've bought trees from Ken Muir and they seem competitively priced and stock is good quality 

[allstars_princess]

Thanks.  I will look into all your suggestions.