Popular on continental Europe and with Dutch origins, 'Tros Oranje' is widely regarded as one of the most attractive apricots available, and now you can grow it yourself in the UK. 'Tros Oranje' welcomes spring with a beautiful display of fragrant white flowers during April and May, attracting bees on other pollinators with their much needed early-season nectar. During summer, the incredibly attractive apricots begin to form, richly coloured with orange skins and a flush of red. Often earlier to ripen than other apricots and ready to pick from July, they are full or delicious juiciness and have an excellent flavour. Ideal for making deserts and jam or adding to fruit salad, and a real treat as a snack fresh from the tree. Grown on a dwarfing rootstock, this deciduous tree is the perfect size for growing in a large pot on the patio, and it can be trained against a south-facing wall as an espalier or fan, and as it's self-fertile, there doesn't need to be another apricot tree nearby to pollinate it. However, you can increase your crop my hand-pollinating. Although hardy, choose the warmest place you can for growing your apricot. Keep it sheltered from cold winds and you'll be rewarded with plenty of tasty, juicy fresh apricots. If frost is expected, you may need to cover the blossom with fleece to protect it. Supplied as an established tree in a 7.5L pot, 1.6-1.8m (5-6ft) tall and growing to a height of 3.5m (11½ft) and spread of 2.5m (8ft) in 10 years.
The Cot series of Apricot trees have taken the commercial fruit and gardening World by storm in the last 5 or so years, bringing exceptional crop yields and fruit quality. 'Tomcot' is one of the best for the UK climate, suited to our colder climates, where we get less accumulated sunshine, yet we get plenty of Winter chill to set buds.One of the key reasons it works well over here is it is late flowering, so avoids the late frosts that can afflict other Apricots. Yet, it catches up and still yields heavy crops of juicy, deepest orange fruits in the UK - perfect eaten when warmed by the sun straight off the tree, or for cooking and jam making. The tree is grafted onto dwarfing rootstock, a new dwarfing type keeping it short and manageable. To cap it all, 'Tomcot; is even self-fertile, so does not need a partner to produce heavy crops. You will get crops in 2 years of planting; this is a great opportunity to buy a tree of the size normally available only to commercial plantations. 'Tomcot' really will deliver big crops of fresh Apricots here in the UK.
Begonia Apricot Sparkle is a fabulous choice for filling your spring garden with gorgeous colour. With its rich blend of orange and yellow blooms, long flowering period from June until October and spectacular trailing habit, this is the perfect choice for your Hanging Basket displays. This begonia will so well in both full sun and shade as well as being perfect suited for patio pots and containers where its blooms can effortlessly cascade over the edges. Supplied as a pack of 60 pro+ plug plants, ready to grow on before planting out.