|
UK National Fruit Collections | |
The National Fruit Collections received an enquiry asking whether we would like budwood from a pear tree variety 'Beurre Diel: The tree stood for 140 years and was destined to be grubbed because it had become too large for the garden of this house. This variety we already hold in the collection. Having looked up our accession notes we found that is was accessed by RHS Wisley in 1933 from Bunyard. Was this tree from other stock? I was informed that the ground where it was growing originally was part of the Morden Hall Estate, an extensive area planted to fruit trees. Morden Hall Park run by the National Trust holds an apple day and within the grounds is an orchard part of the remains of the original plantings. Hearing of this story they have decided that it is important to retain germplasm at its original site and are now about to access budwood for their collection and therefore retain the variety in its original siting. This illustrates how the network can work for our heritage.
In the village of Congresbury near Bristol lies an orchard planted at the turn of the century by a Mr Tom Day. Miss Jean Day his daughter displayed a selection of apples at their Apple Day festivities. One apple was named as Congresbury Beauty a variety thought to be lost. This variety has a colourful history . It was first grown from a seed found in the gutter by a Mr Pople when walking to work at Ushers in Trowbridge. He planted it and it produced colourful apples which were duly named Poplegutter apple. Mr Tom Day a specialist in fruit produced this apple at a meeting of the RHS Brains Trust. JM Potter the late director of the National Fruit Collections was present and was unable to identify the variety. After the committee heard the tale and carefully studied the accession notes, it was decided in conjunction with Long Ashton to rename the variety Congresbury Beauty after the village in which it was growing. Budwood was taken and young trees now stand pride of place in the community orchard. Sadly the original tree has died from honey fungus. Another happy story and reason to work together in the UK Network for Malus.
Crown copyright, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, prepared by Imperial College at Wye. This material may be reproduced without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use.
 |
nfc@ic.ac.uk | Last updated 23 November 2001 |