I’m a sucker for fruit jellies. Every year I go early to the Women’s Institute tent at my local Llanthony agricultural show to stock up on redcurrant and crab-apple jelly, which are much better than the commercial stuff and so good with lamb.
The shame is that we ought to be making it ourselves, because redcurrants are so easy to grow. You can plant them as free-standing bushes in the same way as blackcurrants or you can train them flat on a wall, where they look attractive in fruit and it’s easier to protect them from the birds. When the time comes you must net them, unless you are lucky enought to live somewhere miraculously untroubled — some people do (I once did), and some years the birds leave them alone anyway.
What’s more useful is that you can grow redcurrants on a north-facing wall, where few other things would do well, and if you train them carefully — which is not difficult; perhaps in a fan shape or a candelabrum — the result is most ornamental. They needn’t protrude far from the wall if it’s in a narrow space where you have to squeeze past them.
Pruning is simple — just take the new shoots back in winter to a short fruiting spur. Planting is straightforward too, in a normal, well-enriched hole. Cut them back hard after planting to produce vigorous new growth that will flower next year.
Mint
It makes the simplest of jellies and you can grow anywhere in a bit of rough space where its running roots won’t become a nuisance. A shallow tub works well.
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Crab apples
These make the most luminous yellow or rosy jellies depending on the colour of the fruit, which can be anything from bright yellow to almost red. At 4-5m they are not large trees and they are worth growing for the blossom alone. They will thrive for quite a few years in a pot, although in the end you may wish to plant them out. ‘Red Sentinel’ and ‘Gorgeous’ are good at remaining small. Plant any time now through February for fruit in 2023. Crab apples are self-fertile so one tree on its own will still produce fruit.
Rowan trees
In these days of foraged foods it’s worth mentioning that you can make good jellies from rowan berries, and many gardeners grow ornamental rowans (Sorbus) of some kind if not our wild mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia). Berries can be pink, scarlet or white and all are usable when ripe.
Elderberry
Another wild species that can be used for jelly, producing a nearly-black product of great allure, though I don’t doubt a paler product could be made from the red-berried elderberry Sambucus racemosa, commonly grown in gardens in its cut-leaved golden form ‘Plumosa Aurea’.
Medlar trees
Some people are partial to medlar jelly. I’m not so sure. I call medlar trees curiosities rather than great beauties, and the fruits the same. Their space-to-value ratio is not high enough for a small garden.
Quince trees
A quince — well, that’s different! Quince blossom far outstrips any apple’s for beauty. Height depends on conditions: a quince will grow between 2.5-4m. What it likes, to do well, is shelter and warmth, to get that fruit set and developing. And with that fruit, so golden, so fragrant, you can make quince jelly, or quince paste (membrillo), or flavour apple pies, or scent a room. Irresistible.
Weeder’s digest
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Cut away the tops of snow-flattened perennials where they are smothering smaller plants. There is no need yet to start an extensive cutting down and clearing of perennials except in places where small spring bulbs (snowdrops, anemones, chionodoxa etc) are about to come through among them.
Clear away the dead foliage of peonies and snip off any standing stems at soil level while being careful not to damage the emerging new buds, then apply a light 2-3cm mulch of rich garden compost to the crown, leaving the buds peeping through.
Keep a close eye on potted bulbs protected against mice. If you have boards over the tops of the pots, the boards must come off the second any green tips show through or the growth will become yellow and stunted, then go mouldy.
Repair fences and if necessary check rabbit-proofing along the bottom: chicken-wire fastened 60cm high and dug into the ground in an L shape running 40cm away from your property.
When planting native hedges, the whips of most trees (thorn, rose, viburnum, field maple) are left alone by rabbits but they just love young hollies, prickly or not. So it’s worth giving hollies a little individual protection for a year or two, especially as they are usually pot-grown and more expensive. Rabbits are always madly curious to try something new, but after that the plants will be safer if not immune to their attentions. A plastic spiral, wound round the trunk of an 80cm holly, protects the whole plant for many years, even if the rabbits get the first of the low branches in the very early years.
Question time
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Q. I had some tall tender salvias still in flower when the cold spell arrived, including that lovely dark ‘Amistad’. Now they are completely black. Will they recover?
F Reede
A. If they do it will be from the base and in late spring; they’re not made for hard frosts. Resist the temptation to cut them back soon; it’s very easy to finish them off. Shorten the tops down to 60cm maybe, to reduce wind-rock, but don’t cut them down low to encourage shooting till April.
Q. Is it true you can now get into Sissinghurst garden, which is National Trust, on RHS membership?
A Macklyn
A. True. For 2023 at least, the world-renowned Sissinghurst can be accessed free on RHS membership, as an RHS partner garden. So can Powis Castle in Wales and Goodnestone Park in Kent, childhood home of the former Times garden writer George Plumptre. But if you really want a bargain, membership of the Scottish National Trust also gets you into English National Trust properties more cheaply.
Send your questions to stephen.anderton@thetimes.co.uk
