Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from "Rick Eggleston" contains these words:

Apple festivals????? Must be a Southern English thing.

Nope.


I suspect Cat is in
a similar position to those of us in Scotland - despite the fact that
Edinburgh is on my doorstep, there is nowhere that stocks more than 5 or
varieties of spindly pot grown specimens. I have found up here that if
you're at all choosy, mail order from the South is the only answer.

Really? One of the best apple nurseries is in Scotland (Ayrshire)

http://www.butterworthsorganicnurser.../mainframe.htm.

lists about 50, plus

"Any of the 2,300 varieties in the National Collection can be propagated
to special order, as can your special tree. "



Rick is right as regards mainstream garden centres, which in Ireland
cater essentially to the week-end gardener with postage stamp garden at
the back of his semi-detached 3-bed in the suburb, and who is a far
greater consumer of patio-related goods than of plants for
consumption... The mainstream garden centres are also chronically
staffed by incompetent teenagers - especially at week ends...
However, we do have interesting nurseries which get up to all manners
of exciting stuff in a relatively low key manner.
A good source of local old Irish varieties of apples is the Irish Seed
Savers' Association - and a little research since my posting yesterday
indicates they will have a special apple tree sale in November (not a
bad excuse for a week end away - they are based in Scarriff, Co.
Clare). They also have an online shop.
I am just at a loss as to what varieties to pick, as I want very tasty
apples, preferably low maintenance and easy to grow, and preferably
reasonably good keeping. To be fair, their catalogue is reasonably
descriptive, but I'd rather contact them for their advice :-)

For those who might be interested, this is their website:
http://www.irishseedsavers.ie/

Cat(h)