On 27 February the Asby Gardening Club welcomed Hilary Wilson who gave us an inspiring talk about apples, telling us briefly about their history and sharing her passion for growing and propagating apples.
Hilary gave us a demonstration of how to graft apple trees and explained the importance of choosing the correct rootstock so you end up with a suitable sized tree for the space available. Having been grafting apples for many, many years, Hilary made the whole process look very simple and encouraged us all to have a go at trying this ancient technique. She also gave a very detailed demonstration and explanation as to winter pruning of apple trees, and the reasons for doing this.
The members and visitors who came to this meeting enjoyed the evening and learnt something about the apple tree, its fruit, growth habits and how to increase our stock of trees.