Gardening: Cuttings: Budding fruit trees

BROGDALE Horticultural Trust, which looks after the National Fruit Collections at Faversham in Kent, is holding two demonstrations tomorrow on the budding of fruit trees. This is a specialised form of propagating in which you slip a sliver of wood, containing a bud of the tree you want to grow, into a branch of a different fruit tree, which will then feed and nurture it (you hope) as though it were its own. The morning session lasts from 11am to 12.30pm; the afternoon, from 2pm to 3.30pm.

If you don't trust your own budding skills, Brogdale are also offering a bud-while-you-wait service to anyone wanting to perpetuate an old but flagging fruit tree. Fee for the demonstration is pounds 4. For further details ring 0795 535462.