Allotments 4 All

Hi, behind our house we have an old walled gardens, they have been left to there own devices since the early 1980's when the nuns moved out. The gardens have had fruit trees in for at least a century, I was wondering if there was any way of identifying what variety the trees are.
There is also pear and cherry trees in there. It has been walled in since early 80's with a huge glass topped breeze block wall so the walled gardens within are totally undisturbed, my own secret garden....amazing.

If you take samples of the fruit to an apple fair (such as the Blackmoor Nurseries one) there's usually an expert on hand who will help to identify the varieties.

Also, if you belong to the RHS, they do a fruit identification service for members.

valmarg

Don't know about the trees but the walled garden sounds fabulous.

I do not know the emoticon for envy!

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments2_my_allotment_in_liverpool.html

I'll post some photo's up tommorow. Thanks for the tips, i'll save some fruit from each tree (about 30).
I'm not a member of the RHS perhaps it is something I should consider.

Another source of ID expertise is Brogdale, the home of the national fruit collection. They do IDs by post, so you don't have to find your way to Kent (though it's an amazing place to visit).

Full instructions on what to do are here: http://www.brogdale.org/fruit_identification.html

They do charge a fee (£9.40 for Brogdale members, £18.80 for non-members, cheaper in person at various special events) but I've never resented my cash going to such a wonderful cause. :)

Thanks for that Triffid, it would be nice to find out what they are as I am sure they are very old variety's as it's been an orchard for over a hundred years and run by a closed order of nuns with no outside interference.