ABOUT US

There is an ancient pleasure in planting a fruit tree and nurturing it, with a little assistance from nature, until it yields the perfect health sustaining food. For thousands of years, human endeavour has collected, selected, bred and refined the perfect fruit varieties, yet for decades we have turned our backs on them, for the modern conveniences of cheapness and easy supply, at the expense of quality and variety.

We have fallen into idle habits, ignoring our history. We are too busy to nurture curiosity and we prefer to keep life simple. But there is so much pleasure to be found from enquiry into the past, to see that our old towns and villages were once more orchard than building and that the tantalizing evidence is still there. The old trees still remain, here and there, and many old varieties are not yet lost. If an old fruit tree was a white tiger or an Elizabethan manor house we would view them differently, but why?
It is our mission to discover, understand and save what we can, and then to make them available to others (there is safety in numbers) keeping the flame alive and preserving the genetic pool for the future.. We are very grateful to all those good people who have helped us, told us of trees and sent scionwood, given information and encouraged us with kind words and their enthusiasm, here and on the other side of the world. We thank you.
We started on this path, 25 years ago and have been heartened to find that we are not alone. There is a rapidly swelling army of enthusiasts the length and breadth of the Isles, engaged in rediscovery and conservation. Join us and give a home to a rare and endangered old fruit variety. Even the least of them will give more pleasure than the poor offerings of the supermarkets. These old fruits were valued, propagated and kept for good reasons.

 

Our aim is to get these old varieties back in cultivation and that does not really square with commercial pragmatism. We offer several different rootstocks and want the range to be as wide as possible. That, necessarily, means that the available numbers of any one variety of tree fruit, on any one rootstock, is limited. Please think ahead and order early to avoid disappointment. For bush fruits, we are still in the process of adding to the range, looking out for endangered historic varieties.


We are always happy to advise, either over the telephone or at the nursery. Email is fine for a quick question, but time is limited here and a longer enquiry is always best dealt with by telephone.


If you know of an old tree or fruit variety which you think will be of interest to us then please contact us. There are still so many and they are fast disappearing. We still (just) have that generation with us, who remember the names and valued the individual trees. Please direct them to us. It may be that you have an old tree, where the name is now lost but you value the tree and fruit, nonetheless. We can graft a new tree from your old one, to keep the line going. Please enquire.


Though fruit trees and bushes in containers are incapable of being certificated as organic, we grow organically, with the single exception that the compost contains inorganic fertiliser and this we consider unavoidable.


Lastly, - a tip. It is surprising how quickly fruit trees lose their names. This has happened over centuries and can still happen just a few years from planting, as people move house more frequently. When you plant fruit trees, put a map and a key with your deeds, for your successors.

 

CONTACT - Telephone: 01844 237415 Fax: 01844 238920 email: ask@bernwodefruittrees.co.uk
Bernwode Fruit Trees, Kingswood Lane, Ludgershall, Buckinghamshire, HP18 9RB