Jack French gardening: dwarf fruit trees can be terrific

Thirty years ago only the rare specialist nursery sold dwarf fruit trees, and expert opinion stated that it was impossible to grow dwarf citrus: apples yes, cherries maybe, and as for persimmons, pears, peaches, quinces etc al - just be glad they are grown on stock that keeps the tree to only 4-5 metres.

The first readily commercial dwarf fruit trees were the "Ballerina" apple line, developed especially for balcony pots, growing tall, skinny and productive. Then came dwarf peaches and nectarines so tiny that the wallabies kept jumping on ours and squishing fruit, branches trunk and all.

These days you can choose from "very dwarf" fruit trees ie, tiny, to "semi dwarf" or "dwarf", in everything from mangoes to lemons. I've just ordered two "very dwarf" apples trees, "Red Love" and "Summer Surprise", both of which grow to only 2 metres, and give lavish crops of bright red skinned apples that have a tempting red flesh too. "Red Love" also is supposed to have red leaves, red blossom and even red bark. I will let you know if the claim is true once the tree has arrived and is growing.

For the diligent reader who may remember that I vowed not to plant any more fruit trees, these are very small fruit trees. Two small trees don't equal one large tree ... if anyone can think of any more excuses, let me know. I was captivated by the thought of apples with red flesh. They fruit mid-season, January through to April, which is fruit fly season too, but are small enough to be easily netted with fruit fly netting, which will also annoy the possums. I have a feeling that possums will enjoy red fleshed apples very much indeed, too. Birds, bats or snakes don't get caught in fruit fly netting, as they do in conventional anti-bird netting. Removing a snake from bird betting is traumatic for you and the snake, and may prove lethal to one or both of you. Fruit fly netting also reduced hail damage and seriously inconveniences wallabies.

This is the time to get in quick to order the best new season fruit trees before the most popular ones have been snapped up. I bless the day I planted a dwarf "Earliblaze", crisp red apples that fruit at Christmas and are perfect for kids to pick on and munch on their way to Grandma's. The tree had stopped growing at almost two metres exactly, and fruits before the fruit fly have begun producing too many generations of descendants.

I am incredibly tempted by the "Angel" flat peach, a new dwarf variety with yes, flat peaches that taste stunning fresh or pureed into champagne for a Christmas Bellini. Come to think of it, buying six "Angel" peach trees now, and potting them up would be a great way to get ahead with Christmas presents. Beurre Easter pear also comes grafted into dwarfing stock so it can be grown in a big pot or a tiny courtyard, to give you firm late season pears that are perfect for simmering slowly in red or white wine, with possibly a clove or two or piece of cinnamon stick.

We already have a miniature black mulberry, producer of the most delicious mulberries in southern NSW (bias admitted here). We could also have a dwarf white mulberry if we wanted one that won't stain clothes and fingers or the washing when the bower birds eat the berries then sit on the sheets on the clothes line. We also have dwarf self-pollinating cherries and almonds, and half of a young dwarf Bullida apricot tree (a wallaby recently ate the other half), a semi dwarf pomegranate, a dwarf lemonade tree and a two-year-old dwarf yellow plum that has so many weeds towering over it that the poor thing hasn't grown much.

That is the one problem with miniature trees - their rootstock is less vigorous, to keep the trees small, but that also means the young trees are, well, less vigorous, and so won't leap up out of the shade of weeds or wallaby reach as quickly as larger versions of the same tree, nor will the roots be as large and deep to survive droughts. Do be careful that you are buying a fruiting variety, too, not one bred to give glorious blossom but no crop to inconveniently drop on the lawn or squidge onto the cars in the driveway.

I have to admit that if I were planting our orchard again, I'd go for more dwarf fruits, and not just because I could fit in more varieties. Dwarf fruit trees tend to bear earlier than their big cousins, possibly because they have less tree to grow before they get into fruit production. They need less pruning - or none. Imagine your front garden hedged with 12 varieties of apples so you get fruit from December to August. There are now hundreds of heritage apple varieties to choose from available commercially, from dwarf "Dorset Golden" to dwarf "Eagle Point Star" with its deep rich red flowers, crimson-purple skin above pinkish/purple flesh fading to white near the core, so when you cut it in half it looks like a star.

A tree small enough to easily throw over fruit fly netting is a major plus, as is being able to to pull down branches with the crook of my walking stick to pick fruit from the top of the tree, instead of having to climb a ladder or use a long-handled contraption to pick an avocado 6 metres up. You can even buy dwarf avocado trees now. Basically, if it fruits, some breeder, somewhere, has developed a variety perfect for your backyard - or soon will.

Think of your favourite fruit, imagine it laden on a small tree on your patio or courtyard, in a pot or hedged into the most productive fence, then hunt it down.