New Season 2024

It’s with great joy and a real sense of anticipation that we can announce the reopening our fruit tree nursery for the 2024-25 season!

Our grafted apple and pear trees are all uploaded to our online shop and we’re ready to start taking orders. As ever, any orders take over the summer months will be dispatched when the tree have fully dropped their leaves and the dormant season is upon us. This usually runs from around mid-November, but in these recent milder years our trees seem to be holding onto their leaves for that little bit longer, so we’re aiming to start sending out orders from early-December. You’ll receive an email two to three weeks prior to the dispatch with a delivery week, then a further notification along with tracking information on the day of dispatch. Orders are all sent out next day delivery.

Some of our customers have asked whether they can visit us at the nursery. Unfortunately, this isn’t possible at present, as we’re currently on a friend’s land which isn’t really set up for the public to access. To avoid confusion, we should probably note as well that the nursery itself is located in Pembrokeshire – the address on the website is our ‘office’ address where we can receive post, and which is legally required if you’re selling online. So, we’re not actually (very often) to be found in Aberystwyth!

As ever, please do feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have. If we’re not able to supply you with what you’re after, we’ll happily do our best to point you in the direction of someone who can. And if you have the time, do please leave us a review on the site – it really helps us know what we’re doing right and what we can do better.

We’ve grafted some new trees to add to the collection. Nicky has always had a passion for crab apples, so it’s no surprise she’s started to expand our collection. There doesn’t seem to be a downside to crab apples, they act as wonderful pollinators for your other apple trees, and are a thing of beauty in any garden, whether it be their colourful foliage, scented blossom, or colourful fruits that will continue to feed the birds during those cold winter months. With their early flowering in the spring, they are beloved by bees and other pollinators. They require little in the way of maintenance, generally have great disease resistance and are often self-fertile.

Alongside the spectacularly coloured fruit, foliage and juice of Robert’s Red Crab, we now have John Downie, the classic choice for crab apple jelly and its wonderfully fragrant blossoms. Another contender is Jelly King, producing an excellent pink jelly and large orange-pink fruit that remain on the tree far longer than most of the other larger-fruited crabs. Or Red Sentinel, whose leaves turn a stunning golden bronze in the autumn, then at Christmas the fruit laden branches make for elegant natural decorations. If you’re looking for a pretty weeping tree we have Sun Rival, its umbrella shape is a mass of fragrant blossom in the spring, followed by bright red fruits in the autumn.

We’ve added a few more Welsh varieties to the collection, including Cissy, Gelli Aur, and Rhyl Beauty, and thanks to some lovely friends who shared their precious scions with us we are now able to add Wanstall Pippin, Tydeman’s Late Orange, Fenouillet Gris and Barcelona Pearmain. We’re also continuing to work with Wales Heritage Orchards on drawing up a definitive Pomona of Welsh apples and we hope to soon have more information about this available on the site.

This year’s cider – single variety Dabinett - continues to mature in the whiskey barrels and has a delightfully soft astringency and full-bodied flavour. We would have liked to include some other varieties in the mix last year, but originally were planning on skipping the year’s cider making due to other commitments, leaving it as a last-minute rush when we finally decided to start pressing! Dabinett were the only apples we could lay our hands on – an esoteric little cider apple that tends to divide cider drinkers who either love it or, if not actually hate it, at least wonder what all the fuss is about – but it was what it was, and we’re both in the former camp of Dabinett enthusiasts. Maybe next year we’ll get to explore some other varieties and start some blending.

The big news this year is that we have finally – finally! – found some land! Some 19 acres or so in north Pembrokeshire, not too far from the Preselis, with around six of the acres being woodland. There’s a big old barn that needs a little TLC as does, to be honest, much of the pasture. Nonetheless (and as you can probably imagine) we’re over the moon, and it’s now full on to try to get things ready for planting out our rootstock for next year’s grafting. As well as apples and pears, we’re also expanding our range to include some other top fruits, although it’ll be a while before they make it into the shop.

Despite obviously being busy with the above, we’re still available to help with any enquiries you may have. We’re very much looking forward to the new season and we hope to enjoy your custom at Tyn y Berllan. Here’s raising a glass to a bountiful year for all!

Cofion cynnes,

Nicky & Gareth x