Helping boost Tamar apple varieties with apple grafting weekend at Cotehele

February is a perfect time to start planning your garden for the months ahead. The gardeners at Cotehele near Saltash, have an idea that will help you enhance your patch for not just months, but for years. During apple grafting weekend on 17 and 18 February they will show you how to graft your own apple tree that you will be able to take away and plant in your garden back home.

‘We really like teaching the art of grafting apple trees,’ says Dave Bouch, Cotehele Head Gardener. ‘it helps to keep local varieties of apple alive in the area. I run into people years later, and they always seem surprised that what they grafted during the workshop has actually grown into a tree. It’s satisfying to know that they’re helping keep the rare Tamar varieties thriving.’

During individual workshops, the gardeners will teach visitors how to graft trees of varieties specific to the Tamar Valley that aren’t widely available. There will be a record 25 varieties to choose from this year. Types of apple include ‘Sidney Strake’, ‘Herring’s Pippin’ and the Cornish cooking apple ‘Polly Whitehair’ that takes its name from its prolific pinky-white blossom. The choices range from cooking and cider-making apples, to eating apples delicious straight from the tree. Chris says that there’s an apple for all occasions.

The apple tree grafting workshops will run from 11am to 4pm each day and are suitable for those aged 16 or over. There is a limit of two trees per workshop, and normal admission charges apply plus grafting materials of up to £5 per tree. There will be rolling workshops all day so there is no need to book.

The shop, Cotehele Gallery, Barn Restaurant and Edgcumbe tea-room on Cotehele Quay will be open.

For more information telephone 01579 351346 or visit: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cotehele.