[Heather]

Hello everybody!

Just wondering whether any of you could recommend a nursery that sells good, mature fruit trees in Co Dublin.

Also, I'm Italian and would like some advice on regard which trees are most productive in this most unique climate of yours.

Thanks for your help.

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[DoubleDigger]

Hi Heather

Check out www.tullynurseries.ie They used to be trade only but now open to the public. It's just beyond Swords heading for Skerries. They have a very large plant selection in general. We got some nice Pears,& Plums from them. I live in swords and generally speaking the Pear and Plum trees do well on the heavy clay that we have in our garden. You need a sunny spot though so south or west facing wall would be required I think.
Also in the same area is Jones Fruit Farm & Garden Centre on the Swords Road, Donnabate very good too.

Judging by the Pear blossom it's going to be a bumper crop this year.

[walltoall]

Ciao Heather, what is it you would like to grow? Marian Nurseries: Garden Centre, Newhaggard, Lusk. Tel: 8437445 / 8437320 is about half a mile beyond Blakes Cross on the road to Lusk. This nursery has been going since the 50's and indeed it was from Petrus (Laddie) De Jong I learned almost all I know about rose cultivation when I was only 14! It is the jewel in the crown of North County Dublin nurseries but never advertises. Doesn't have to.

[DoubleDigger]

Hi Walltoall
I don't think I know the Marian nursery you mention. (I'm thinking it might be the place that does great ferns and hostas and more but not 100% sure where that is located. I've created a Google Map of some of the places I know in the North county. Could you add any places to it I've yet to discover perhaps?

the map is herehttp://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=53.558258,-6.16745&spn=0.447028,1.060181&t=h&z=10&msid=117912524089379710254.0004683a7c0824169f33d

[walltoall]

DoubleDigger
When you turn off the old "Belfast Road" (R132) at Blakes Cross towards Skerries (R127) you shortly cross a bridge over the White River. Another couple of hundred yards and you pass Ballealy Lane on the right. Climbing a bit of a hill you pass on your left a tree-lined avenue, locally known as "Hanna's Avenue". About 100 yards further on the left is (or at least used to be) the entrance to Marian Nursery, just beyond what were WW1 vintage cottages. Google shows the cottages but not clearly.

N50,30'32" x 6,10'58.60" is my plot of the gate from Google Earth and it certainly looks that Marian Nurseries is alive and well from what I can [vaguely] see in the picture,

EDIT: additional info Paul the "another nursery" you show on your googler map IS the Marian Nursery. Ask for Laddie and tell him the "Nurses Son" sent you.

[Heather]

Thanks everybody for the useful reply!

I've noticed that this week the sales are on in B&Q, where you can find really cheap fruit trees. Do you think they would be good quality though?

[Heather]

[walltoall]

Heather! Since you are in the the North County you should, if you're able, go out to Marian Nurseries with a plan of your garden and tell them what you would like to do. Yes! You can buy saplings in B+Q and you may be lucky. But big chains buy on price and it's not a good idea to be getting stock from B+Q. You have a garden about the same size as mine, so my suggestion would be for you to go for dwarf stock. These grow to about 8' eventually but can deliver over 100 apples, 200 plums, 1000 cherries. Pears are very slow to grow and to fruit. You may have to wait 5 or 10 years but then that's what gardening is all about. (I have a 5yo mulberry which just MAY fruit from about 2015!)

Don't waste a south-facing wall on any of these fruits. Grow a fig! My 5yr old "Brown Turkey" has 60 babies on it at the minute, which may be ripe in late June if I'm lucky. With a further bit of luck I'll get a second crop in September because I'm down at 51.30N and get an awful lot of sun. The south-facing wall will also suit grapes. I get 5 to 10 kgs off mine on average. Blackbirds will decimate your cherries as soon as they turn red (the cherries that is, not the blackbirds) unless you use netting (Another reason for having dwarf stock)

Starlings will nick all your grapes in September unless you take precautions. Bullfinches will eat the buds off anything that blossoms just after the blossoms fall they eat the buds! So get to know your birds.

[Heather]

Walltoall, Thanks a million!

I will sure follow your advice and might visit the nursery in the afternoon.
I'll have to start taking up birdwatching as well as gardening...


Thanks, thanks and again thanks!

[breezyacre]

I know it's a long time since this query was made about a nursery in North County Dublin but I happened to search the same topic recently and I visited Marian Nursery. I believe I met Petrus, though I didn't ask his name, and I bought two roses. He spent about twenty minutes talking with us and sharing his vast knowledge of roses. It was one of the most rewarding visits to a garden centre I have ever made Thanks for the directions and recommendation

[tagwex]