Fruit trees from gardenbargains.com?

[CarolineW]

A friend is thinking about ordering some fruit trees from gardenbargains.com , and has asked me what I think of them.

I've never used them, although it sounds like a good deal, from what is written. I don't know what the quality of their trees/plants is like, though. Does anyone have any experience of them?

[FB.]

The website seems rather vague - no mention of the age of the trees, no mention of whether they have been pruned to shape and no mention of rootstock.
I would not buy an apple or pear tree unless I knew the exact rootstock.
Without knowing the rootstock, you just don't know it's tolerance to certain growing conditions and you won't know how big it will grow - with apples, the M27 rootstock can make a tree as small as 4ft, while the M25 rootstock can exceed 20ft.
More than likely, they're on M26 (7ft) or MM106 (10ft), but I don't take anything for granted.

[Noodles]

My Mum ordered some trees from them after seeing this offer in a magazine:

Welcome To www.gardenbargains.com

She got one set for me and one for her, plus when she ordered there was a speacial deal on and she got a Bramley apple tree for herself as well.

Hers have arrived and are apparently looking good. Mine should be with me any day now so I'll report back.

[Rossa]

Only other thing is the apple will need a pollinator. The Braeburn is a Group C, so good pollinators are Gala and James Grieve. If there are other apple trees in the area you may be ok.

The Conference Pear and Victoria Plum are self fertile so will produce fruit but will crop better with a pollinator. The Victoria can be festooned so that it looks like a weeping willow. That way is will be easier for pruning and cropping if it's a standard tree.

[FB.]

My Victoria plum seems to naturally "festoon" itself, due to weight of fruit pulling the branches down. I have one that is several years old and is probably 6ft wide, but only 4ft high - as a result of the branches being pulled down by weight of fruit.

[littlemark]

Is the term 'Festooning' applicable to all fruit trees, or just the Plum family. I 'festoon' some of my apple trees to promote the formation of fruiting buds by tying down some of the more upward growing branches, but is this 'Festooning'?

Mark

[FB.]

I've heard people use the phrase "festoon" to describe all types of trees.
I've heard of (and seen) "festooned" cherries and silver birches, as well as fruit trees. But I don't know if we should be using that term to describe them.

If necessary, I encourage fruit buds by:

Reduced watering in dry periods.
Reduced feeding.
Summer pruning.
Plants or grass growing near, but not quite up to, the trunk.

I often don't need to resort to more than just one or two of the above measures. My problem is often the opposite; too little shoot growth and too many fruit buds, which requires the complete opposite treatment, or stronger rootstocks.

[Paola]

I had a whole selection of fruit trees from Gardenbargains.com last year and they have been really good croppers. 5 were speciman trees - and a good soaking of the root balls overnight and planting in good compost the next day provided 4 very healthy, good cropping apple, pear, plum and cherry trees. The one tree I am still trying to bring on but as all were 'give-aways' as part of another order I still think it is value for money.

[WrexTheDragon]

Gardenbargins.com is part of the Ideal World shopping channel.

The Gardening shows are normally on a Sunday and they tend to be £5 less in price.

[CarolineW]

I had a whole selection of fruit trees from Gardenbargains.com last year and they have been really good croppers. 5 were speciman trees - and a good soaking of the root balls overnight and planting in good compost the next day provided 4 very healthy, good cropping apple, pear, plum and cherry trees. The one tree I am still trying to bring on but as all were 'give-aways' as part of another order I still think it is value for money.

Thanks so much - that's really helpful feedback!