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OCTOBER 2017 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 103 With the hotel’s chefs demanding home-grown produce year-round, the gardeners at The Pig near Bath harvest and preserve every last summer crop. The soil they leave behind is not left vacant for long: waiting in the wings are brassicas and broad beans, ready to go into the plots that have been cleared of summer salads and squashes. As soon as a crop is removed, the soil is replenished with the organic matter and nutrients required to grow so many crops in such quick succession. There is still time to squeeze in a quick catch crop too: fast-growing radishes or a rapid-fire harvest of mustard greens. In the polytunnel and greenhouse, tomato and chilli plants are cleared and replaced with winter salads and baby leaves. “That is the immediacy of plot-to-plate we aim for,” says Ollie Hutson. “In winter we still try to use home-grown produce. Even if it is preserved rather than fresh, it is still food that hasn’t travelled for miles.” The Pig near Bath, Hunstrete, Somerset BS39 4NS. Tel: 0345 2259494; thepighotel.com Above When spent salad crops are cleared away, the vacant patch is dressed generously with compost in preparation for the next crop. A Change of Pace The season is slowing at The Pig near Bath, but there is still plenty for gardeners Ollie Hutson and Fran Chilet-Olmos to do to keep the kitchen in winter crops THE PIG | HARVESTING IMAGE JASON INGRAM
104 THE ENGLISH GARDEN OCTOBER 2017 1. Pull exhausted salad plants from the soil. 2. Spread a thick layer of homemade compost over the surface. 3. Dig over with a fork to mix it into the soil. BROAD BEANS Choose winter-hardy varieties such as ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ and ‘The Sutton’ for autumn sowing in early November and pods ready for picking in May. ONIONS Look for Japanese over-wintering onion sets to plant in autumn such as ‘Senshyu Yellow’. They’ll be ready for harvesting in June or July next year. GARLIC Varieties suitable for autumn-planting include ‘Caracassonne Wight’ and ‘Provence Wight’. Choose soil that is free-draining and not wet over winter. Three follow-on crops 1 2 3 Once salad crops are finally exhausted or have gone to seed, they’re pulled up to free the soil for its next crop. “We sometimes use crops that have gone to seed as fodder for the animals, or we compost it with chicken manure and use the result to mulch the ornamental beds,” Ollie says. With constant demand from the kitchen for crops, the ground can’t be rested for long. Ollie digs in plenty of organic matter and prepares the patch for its next occupant – at this time of year that crop is normally brassicas. “We have to dig in lots of mulch, and we’re constantly topping up the organic matter, so we’re not just taking all of the goodness out of the ground,” Ollie says. “This is the reason we can’t take a no-dig approach, because even though we have plenty of very useful worms, they don’t have time to do the hard work for us. We have to get on with it and dig the organic matter in ourselves.” Gone-to-seed salads and mustards are replaced with brassicas such as kale, flower sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli, which have been grown in pots ready for transplanting as a winter crop. Other crops that can take the salad leaves’ place include the first autumn plantings of garlic sets, autumn-sown broad beans and over-wintering onion sets. “You could also put in more leeks, and you could get a couple of quick crops of something like radish, parsley or parcel. We sometimes put in a few Swiss chard plants, which will see you through winter, but if September is cold and wet, they won’t really do much before winter sets in.” Winter squash such as pumpkins are ready to be harvested now too. They are ready when they make a hollow sound when tapped, but make sure they are harvested before the frosts begin. All the Pig hotels THE PIG | HARVESTING Improve your soil Ollie harvests cooking apples.
OCTOBER 2017 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 105 IMAGES JASON INGRAM; SHUTTERSTOCK; GAP PHOTOS: JONATHAN BUCKLEY/GARY SMITH/RICE BUCKLAND/JACQUI HURST have preserving rooms, a new feature introduced to showcase garden produce – pickles, dried herbs, oils – throughout the year and that is where Ollie’s ‘Crown Prince’ and ‘Blue Hubbard’ pumpkins go to cure and wait their turn in the kitchen. Anywhere cool and dry is good for squash storage though: an under-stairs cupboard or garage is ideal. “Winter squashes are cured for difierent lengths of time depending on the species,” Ollie says, who quotes from James Wong’s Grow For Flavour. “There’s information in there on how long to cure each winter squash and which ones become the tastiest, whether it’s winter squash (Cucurbita maxima) or butternut types (Cucurbita moschata). The length of the curing process afiects their sugar content and carotenes,” he says. The parts of the kitchen garden that housed the squashes are soon re-planted with their next crop, too. “It’s usually broad beans because of the timing of when the squash are ready to come out and the beans are ready to go in, usually in early November. Then we’ve only got an empty bed for a month or so,” Ollie says. Apples are picked in autumn, too, although they don’t tend to hang around for long. “The chefs use them fairly quickly,” Ollie says. “They like to make up a big batch of apple sauce to leave in the freezer. If they don’t add sugar they can then use it for puddings or main courses.” The polytunnels are cleared of their spent tomato plants. “We grow winter salads in the tunnels: rocket, mustards, komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach), chard and sometimes some parsley or parcel. In the greenhouse we get rid of all the potted chillies and grow baby salad leaves in small trays that can be taken up to the kitchen and cut as living plants a minute before being served in the restaurant,” he says. Then it is time to start planning for the following season. “We like to have an 18-month plan in place,” Ollie says, explaining the schedule from now right the way through to April 2019. ■ Bring in the harvest Store produce well so it lasts all through winter WRAP APPLES Apples keep for months in a cool, dark, airy place, but only if they’re damage-free. Wrap each apple in paper so the fruits don’t touch each other. STORE POTATOES Potatoes will stay in good condition as long as they are kept in the dark. Light will trigger sprouts and turn tubers green; store in sacks and roll the top. COOK TOMATOES Once the last few tomatoes have turned red, which they will in a fruit bowl with a ripe banana, cook them into passata and freeze for sauces and soups. PRESERVE FRUIT Turn fruit gluts into jams and jellies, or stew the fruit and keep it in the freezer for future pies, crumble, compotes and ice creams. PICKLE VEGETABLES Pickles and chutneys use up lingering beans, chillies, shallots, tomatoes, cauliflower and plums and ensure not a scrap of the harvest is wasted. DRY ONIONS Let the outer skins of onions dry to a crisp bronze and they’ll last all winter in a cool, dark and dry place. Check regularly and discard any that feel soft. Fran takes pumpkins from the plot to store.
Discover Bowood Join The English Garden and garden writer Stephen Anderton in the splendid Capability Brown landscape at Bowood in Wiltshire BOOK NOW Tickets for this special reader event cost £40 per person. Places are limited to 30 people, so book soon. To reserve a place, telephone 01249 810961 or email [email protected]. See bowood.org SPEAKER GREAT GARDENERS Lives of the Great Gardeners, by Stephen Anderton, explores the legacy of 40 infl uential gardeners across 13 countries, dating back from 1470. Brown is featured alongside Kent, Repton, SackvilleWest and Verey. Spend a day in the Wiltshire countryside at Bowood on 6 October 2017, at a special event designed for readers of The English Garden. Join a guided tour of the grounds designed by Capability Brown, take lunch in the Robert Adam-designed house and hear leading garden journalist Stephen Anderton explain Brown’s infl uence on English landscapes. • Start at the Gardener’s Bothy where Stephen Anderton will highlight Capability Brown’s handsome parkland at Bowood and examine the life of this infl uential landscape designer. • Guided tour of the Capability Brown parkland at Bowood, starting from the Terraces that front the Robert Adam-designed Bowood House. • Enjoy a two-course luncheon in the Stables Restaurant at Bowood House. • Book-signing session for Stephen Anderton’s most recent work, Lives of the Great Gardeners. • Stay at Bowood Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort (from £180 per room, per night) on 5 October and receive a complimentary upgrade, subject to availability, and a bottle of Prosecco. THE DAY’S HIGHLIGHTS Date 6 October 2017 Time 11am-3.30pm Places 30 Cost £40 incl. co ee and lunch Location Bowood, Derry Hill, Calne, Wiltshire SN11 0LZ DETAILS READER EVENT STEPHEN ANDERTON Stephen is a widely respected garden journalist, whose work has appeared in The English Garden. Stephen lectures on plantsmanship, garden design and garden restoration, and was previously national gardens manager for English Heritage. BOWOOD Bowood has been the home of the Lansdowne family since 1754. The Brown-designed landscape at Bowood, set over 2,000 acres of Grade I listed parkland, includes a sinuous lake, framed views and clumps of trees.
OCTOBER 2017 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 107 BOOKS WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY The Reviewer A selection of the best garden writing to appear this month Urban Botanics by Maaike Koster and Emma Sibley, Aurum Press, £25 In the cool urban spaces of east and south-east London – in Shoreditch, Clapton, Denmark Hill and Peckham – a clutch of bright young things is discovering gardening for themselves. Social media, mainly Instagram, is key to their approach to the pastime but so, too, is an array of independent shops ofiering the promise of rustic minimalism via robust indoor plants and accessories. One such is London Terrariums in New Cross, founded by Emma Sibley, who graduated from UAL with a degree in surface design in 2012. With Dutch illustrator Maaike Koster – owner of My Deer’s, a shop in Haarlem – Sibley has compiled a concise guide to growing 70 difierent plants suited to homes with little or no outside space. Origins, growing conditions, care and the odd idiosyncrasy are covered in this hardback that would make a pleasing present for someone moving into a flat for the first time. It is, however, Koster’s illustrations that lend the book its distinctiveness. Each a watercolour, they ofier cause to page through and perhaps be inspired to source a succulent and handmade pot for one’s own reclaimed cofiee table. Plant Love by Alys Fowler, Kyle Books, £18.99 Garden writer Alys Fowler has been busy in recent months. Closely following Hidden Nature, her well-received book about identity and paddling the canals of Birmingham, comes Plant Love, in which she returns to her more usual practical horticultural beat. Fowler’s experience and training are apparent in this, her sixth book: her writing is both accessible and authoritative; she is contemporary without dumbing down. The initial stages of Plant Love are given to an explanation of the basics of house plant care. Indoor growing conditions are explained in sections such as ‘If your plant dries out’ and ‘Light and how it enters a room’. Pests, re-potting and propagation are covered, too, before she embarks on a guide to various plants grouped according to their preference for light and shade. At first, edibles, succulents and carnivorous specimens; thereafter such things as Schefiera, Caladium and Anthurium. Each of these is illustrated with clear and engaging photographs by Simon Wheeler, with whom Fowler has collaborated in the past. This is a useful, informative work that earns its place on the bookshelf. Flora by Guy Barter and Sam Falconer, Aurum Press, £25 It is a truth widely acknowledged that in a digital age, media are becoming increasingly visual, with reams of text having long fallen by the wayside among younger consumers especially. Perhaps this is where Flora finds its market. Designed along the lines of a graphic novel or prolonged infographic, this guide to the garden, heavily illustrated by Sam Falconer, is comprehensive but extremely condensed. Each of the 100 topics covered is afiorded a spread of two pages only, and text is kept to a bare minimum. This would be a risky approach were it not for the considerable authority of the author. Guy Barter has been the chief horticultural advisor for the RHS since he joined the organisation in 1990 – he also runs the RHS members’ advisory service. He is well-placed, then, to author Flora, and readers may rest assured that though the work is unconventional, its content is accurate and relevant. Topics include planning, choosing plants, vegetables and herbs, fruit and vines, and practicalities. It is easy to imagine this book translated to a digital device, and perhaps that will be the ultimate location of the work.
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OCTOBER 2017 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 109 Where did the idea for the book come from? I have met many head gardeners, and have rarely encountered one who isn’t impressive in some way. I was struck by how very difierently the gardeners saw their roles, and what a vast range of skills was required of them. I wanted to give some idea of the breadth of this spectrum. Of the many head gardeners I have met, some are artists, educators, scientists, historians, conservationists, experts in many fields – and yet the story of the gardens they tend was always told in terms of owners or designers. I thought it was high time to set the record straight; to give the unacknowledged superstars of British horticulture their due. Who was the most entertaining head gardener to interview? Every single interview was immensely enjoyable but for sheer entertainment value, it must be Alistair Clark at The Garden of Cosmic Speculation. Not only because we spent two days of torrential rain weeping with laughter, but because of his extraordinary story. He has tended the same garden all his life, but when he started out, aged just 14, it was a very traditional Scottish estate, and he expected to spend his days raising raspberries and breeding begonias. Instead, he ended up creating, largely with his own hands, one of the most important gardens of the 20th century and now travels the world advising on landforms. He has played a key role in reviving the idea of the garden as an intellectual powerhouse. Not bad for a lad with ambitions to be a maths teacher but whose hopes were crushed when he couldn’t stay on at school. Who of the gardeners in the book do you think has the most inspiring story? It has to be Paul Pulford. He was a heroin addict who spent seven years living on the street. Gardening turned his life around. And now he uses the roof garden of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London to help others in the same position. His energy and optimism are awe-inspiring. Were there any recurring themes or opinions the head gardeners had in common? All were worried about the future of their profession. The lack of coherent training and career structures, the very poor pay that dissuades youngsters from taking it up, and the move away from providing accommodation as part of the job were all concerns. Who can afiord to rent a family home on a gardener’s salary, especially in the south-east of England? Many felt they didn’t have the depth of plantsmanship of the head gardeners who had trained them: they simply didn’t have the time. And all were dismayed at the devaluing of their profession, how anyone toting a strimmer can call himself a gardener, without even the most basic of skills. Do you think head gardeners in the UK are under-appreciated? They are hugely under-appreciated. If their contribution to the nation’s health and wellbeing, cultural capital and tourist economy were properly valued, they would be as well known – and well paid – as footballers or television stars. But the truth is, head gardeners are absurdly modest. They are not very good at blowing their own trumpets. So I hope this book goes a little way to giving them the recognition they deserve. Head Gardeners By Ambra Edwards, Photographs by Charlie Hopkinson Pimpernel Press, £35 In her new book, Head Gardeners, Ambra Edwards profiles fourteen head gardeners, and argues that they are the real stars of British horticulture Q&A BOOKS WORDS GREG LOADES IMAGE CHARLIE HOPKINSON
GARDENS TO VISIT Celebrate the changing seasons with a visit to one of these fine gardens, rich with autumn colour BLUEBELL ARBORETUM AND NURSERY Annwell Lane, Smisby, Ashby de la Zouch, Derbyshire LE65 2TA Tel: +44 (0)1530 413700 | Website: www.bluebellnursery.com An enchanting, nine acre woodland garden with many rare and unusual trees and shrubs on display! The gardens are cool, green and leafy in summer and the plants are well labelled, with many educational posters next to the more obscure specimens. The gardens surround a specialist tree and shrub nursery. Royal Horticultural Society Partner Garden - RHS members admitted free of charge. Adults: £5. Concessions: £4. Children: free. OPEN: Summer opening times: Monday to Saturday: 9am to 5pm (Sundays & Bank Holidays 10.30am to 4.30pm) WATERPERRY GARDENS Waterperry, Near Wheatley, Oxfordshire OX33 1LA Tel: 01844 339226 | www.waterperrygardens.co.uk Celebrate Apple Weekend at Waterperry – 6, 7 and 8 October. Apple and juice tastings, identification, expert advice and information about growing fruit trees, orchard tours and more. Waterperry Gardens – a place to explore, relax and shop in beautiful surroundings all year round. OPEN: 10am to 5.30pm April – October, 10am to 5pm November – March. Party bookings welcome by arrangement. Please visit our website for further details. BESPOKE PROMOTION ROUSHAM HOUSE & GARDEN Rousham, Bicester, Oxfordshire OX25 4QU Tel: 01869 347110 | www.rousham.org Rousham represents the first phase of English landscape design, and remains almost as William Kent left it, one of the few gardens of this date to have escaped alteration. Many features which delighted 18th century visitors to Rousham are still in situ, such as the ponds and cascades in Venus’s Vale, the Cold Bath and seven-arched Praeneste, Townsend’s Building, the Temple of the Mill, and, on the skyline, a sham ruin known as the ‘Eyecatcher’. OPEN: Daily from 10am, last admission 4.30pm. HEVER CASTLE & GARDENS Hever, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7NG Tel: 01732 865224 | www.hevercastle.co.uk Autumn is the season when Hever’s striking trees come to the fore. Colour abounds with vivid maples and brilliant beech. Boston ivy scrambles up the Castle walls whilst Vitis coignetiae clothes bridges and pergolas with crimson. Visit on a still day for the very best views of reflections in the moats and lake. OPEN: Please see our website for details. CHOLMONDELEY CASTLE GARDENS Malpas, Cheshire SY14 8ET Tel: 01829 720383 | www.cholmondeleycastle.com The gardens at Cholmondeley are among the finest in the north of England, and are dominated by the romantic gothic style castle built in 1801. Visitors will discover a diverse garden with superb plant collections, a recently renovated rose garden, herbaceous borders, glade, ornamental woodland, majestic trees, folly water garden, and the famous temple water garden. OPEN: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays 11am-5pm. Open Sundays only in October for Autumn Tints. Please see website for further details. Photo: Joe Wainwright Photography
OUR GUIDE TO THE BEST OF BRITISH NURSERIES Spring Reach Nursery grows a fantastic range of clematis, trees, hedging, ferns, shrubs, fruit, perennials, roses, climbers and grasses. STARRING NOW stunning autumn colours of Japanese Acers, Parrotia Cercidiphyllum, Liquidamber and spindle trees. Visit one of Surrey’s finest nurseries – a gardener’s paradise! Just five minutes from RHS Garden Wisley. Tel: 01483 284769 [email protected] | www.springreachnursery.co.uk Spring Reach Nursery, Long Reach, Ockham, Surrey GU23 6PG SPRING REACH NURSERY Located in the beautiful Welsh borders, just 20 miles from Shrewsbury, Dingle Nursery and Garden is a hidden delight; an imaginatively planted four acre RHS partner garden alongside a nursery stocked full of everyday and unusual trees, shrubs, perennials, alpines and roses. Bare-root and rootballed stock is available from November and we can deliver nationwide. Advice and stock available for any size project. Open 7 days a week 9am-5pm. Tel: +44 (0)1938 555145 | [email protected] www.dinglenurseryandgarden.co.uk Dingle Nurseries, Frochas, nr.Welshpool, Powys, SY21 9JD DINGLE NURSERIES Hedging UK are specialist growers of quality hedging plants. Plants are available to purchase at wholesale prices across the UK through our mail order service. Buy direct from the grower, delivered direct to your door. Readers of The English Garden get a 5% discount (quote TEG2017). Tel: 01704 827224 or 07789 922457 [email protected] | www.hedginguk.com Boundary House Farm, Holmeswood Road, Holmeswood, Lancashire L40 1UA HEDGING UK Buy our Harvington Hellebores® as pot plants now. Over 25 colours and forms to choose from. Plants are sent by post carefully packed and our top growing tips are enclosed. Our mail order nursery specialises in Harvington Hellebores®, Trilliums, Erythroniums and Roscoea – all plants which enjoy dappled shade in your garden. Our plants are bred and grown by us in the British Isles. Tel: 01778 590455 [email protected] | www.twelvenunns.co.uk TWELVE NUNNS © Clive Nichols Since 1950, Weasdale Nurseries have been growing hardy trees and shrubs on their site at 850ft elevation in the Howgill Fells, at the heart of beautiful Cumbria. Specialising in mail-order from the outset, their careful packaging system has become legendary and guarantees safe arrival of the delicate contents anywhere in Europe. Over 1,000 different plants are listed online and in the comprehensive, illustrated and highly-readable 128-page catalogue. Tel: +44 (0)1539 623246 Email: [email protected] | Website: www.weasdale.com Newbiggin on Lune, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria CA17 4LX WEASDALE NURSERIES Specialists in hardy trees, shrubs and climbers including a huge selection of unusual and rare species and varieties. Expert advice is available from our helpful staff. The nursery is open to the public and surrounded by a lovely nine-acre woodland garden (RHS Partner Garden). Visitors are welcome all year round. Informative website and a reliable mail order service is available if you would like plants delivered. Tel: 01530 413700 [email protected] | www.bluebellnursery.com Annwell Lane, Smisby, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire LE65 2TA BLUEBELL ARBORETUM & NURSERY
TO ADVERTISE • TEL: 020 7349 3700 • EMAIL: [email protected] Shop with us FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT US AT WWW.THEENGLISHGARDEN.CO.UK COURSES GARDENING TOOLS GREENHOUSES HEDGING HOLIDAYS To advertise in the classified section of please call 020 7349 3700 WROUGHT IRONWORKS ACCESSORIES Over 100 varieties of field and pot grown hedge plants and young trees. Nationwide delivery. Glebe Farm, Langham, Colchester, Essex CO4 5PP e: [email protected] THE HEDGING SPECIALISTS GLEBE FARM HEDGING for advice or a catalogue contact us on t: 01206 323200 www.glebefarmhedging.co.uk Silky Fox Saws Foxley Estate Offi ce, Mansel Lacy, Hereford HR4 7HQ Tel: 01981 590224 Fax: 01981 590355 [email protected] Secateurs, hedgeshears and the world’s fi nest pruning saws in superb, tempered Japanese steel Visit silkyfox.co.uk to fi nd your local stockist Pocketboy 170 Hayauchi 490 KST230 KST103 KST217 Silky Fox Saws Foxley Estate Offi ce, Mansel Lacy, Hereford HR4 7HQ Tel: 01981 590224 Fax: 01981 590355 [email protected] Secateurs, hedgeshears and the world’s fi nest pruning saws in superb, tempered Japanese steel Visit silkyfox.co.uk to fi nd your local stockist Pocketboy 170 Hayauchi 490 KST230 KST103 KST217 Silky Fox Saws Foxley Estate Offi ce, Mansel Lacy, Hereford HR4 7HQ Tel: 01981 590224 Fax: 01981 590355 [email protected] Secateurs, hedgeshears and the world’s fi nest pruning saws in superb, tempered Japanese steel Visit silkyfox.co.uk to fi nd your local stockist Pocketboy 170 Hayauchi 490 KST230 KST103 KST217 Gardening Courses Home-study The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College Free info FREEPHONE 0800 083 9191 or 01409 220 777 Or email: [email protected] www.hccollege.co.uk The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College • For leisure or for a career • Over 30 courses in Gardening, Garden Design, Arboriculture, Forestry, Floristry and more • Many courses prepare you for RHS or RFS/ABC quals. HCC The English Garden 3x2.indd 1 02/06/2015 09:53 Gardening Courses Home-study The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College Free info FREEPHONE 0800 083 9191 or 01409 220 777 Or email: [email protected] www.hccollege.co.uk The Horticultural Correspondence College rticultural pondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College • For leisure or for a career • Over 30 courses in Gardening, Garden Design, Arboriculture, Forestry, Floristry and more • Many courses prepare you for RHS or RFS/ABC quals. English Garden 3x2.indd 1 02/06/2015 09:53 Gardening Courses Home-study The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College Free info FREEPHONE 0800 083 9191 or 01409 220 777 Or email: [email protected] www.hccollege.co.uk Horticultural rrespondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College • For leisure or for a career • Over 30 courses in Gardening, Garden Design, Arboriculture, Forestry, Floristry and more Many courses prepare you for RHS or RFS/ABC quals. ish Garden 3x2.indd 1 02/06/2015 09:53 rses The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College The Horticultural Correspondence College 220 777 o.uk als. 02/06/2015 09:53 • For leisure or for a career • Over 30 courses in Gardening, Garden Design, Arboriculture, Forestry, Floristry and more • Many courses prepare you for RHS or RFS/ABC quals. Free info FREEPHONE 0800 083 9191 or 01409 220 777 Or email: [email protected] www.hccollege.co.uk HURDLES, GARDEN PRODUCTS AND BASKETS FOR CATALOGUE 020 8247 3700 WWW.CHAIRWORKS.INFO [email protected] Island Cottage Holidays 01929 481555 www.islandcottageholidays islandcottageholidays.com Delightful holiday cottages in beautiful coastal & rural locations Isle of Wight & Dorset
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114 THE ENGLISH GARDEN OCTOBER 2017 No-one ever forgets seeing a quince tree for the fi rst time – whether now, in October, when the angle of the light is lower and more golden, and the branches of the quince trees are bowed down almost to the ground with the weight of the huge golden pearshaped fruits; or in April, when the frost is still on the grass and the white-felted underside of the quince leaves gives the unfolding leaf-buds all the elegance of a Magnolia on the point of bursting into fl ower; or in late May, when the trees are smothered with palest pink shell-like blossoms, as delicately scented as any Narcissus. Even in winter they have charm, when their densely contorted umbrella-shaped crowns are thrown into relief by frost or snow. And in the heat of high summer their large heart-shaped leaves provide the perfect canopy for a little table and a glass of chilled white wine. There is something of the fairy tale about quinces, something slightly unreal. The trees are so perfect, the fruit so large you half expect them to be cold to the touch, as if they really were made from solid gold. They are like something from classical legend: the golden apples of the Hesperides were reputed to have been quinces. Even the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden may well have been a quince. I am talking about Cydonia oblonga – the tree quince – not Chaenomeles japonica. Tree quinces can reach 3 to 5 metres in height, depending on the rootstock, and are of three kinds: sweet, fi ne-fl eshed Iranian varieties, which can be eaten raw – plant these if you live in the favoured south; acid-tasting hard-fl eshed European sorts, like ‘Vranja’ or ‘Meech’s Prolifi c’ – use these to make membrillo, the wonderful dark red quince paste; and intermediate fi ne-fl eshed acid types, like the apple-shaped ‘Aromatnaya’ and the large dumpling-shaped ‘Ekmek’ from Turkey – divine baked whole and stuffl ed with cream. Quinces are the perfect trees for small gardens: quick growing, typically fruiting at 3 to 5 years, and self-fertile. All quinces are totally hardy, and bloom late enough in the year to escape most frost damage. Being tip bearers, they need little pruning beyond the initial formation of the trees in their early stages. And I fi nd they are not susceptible to insect attacks or predation by birds. In recent years quince blight has become a bit of a problem. I pick offl and burn infected leaves, and practise scrupulous hygiene in autumn by raking up and burning all fallen leaves. The disease is fungal and spreads from spores which overwinter on the dead leaves and are then splashed back up onto the trees by rain – it is worse in wet summers. But as Osgood says at the end of Some Like it Hot, “Well, nobody’s perfect”. ■ ILLUSTRATION JULIA RIGBY PORTRAIT BEVERLEY FRY The Perfect Fruit Quince trees and their golden fruit are almost perfect: in autumn, and at other times of the year, too, writes Katherine Swift LAST WORD There is something of the fairy tale about quinces, something unreal “ The Perfect Fruit Quince trees and their golden fruit are almost perfect: in autumn, and at other times of the year, too, writes
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