The
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
's National Fruit Collection is one of the largest collections of fruit trees and plants in the world. Over 2,040 varieties of apple, 502 of pear, 350 of plum, 322 of cherry and smaller collections of bush fruits, nuts and grapes are grown, in of orchards.
British Broadcasting Corporation : 17 August 2006 : ''A Tour Around Kent's Garden of Eden''
Retrieved 26 June 2010
It has been curated and maintained at Brogdale Farm, Brogdale
Brogdale is a hamlet in Kent, England, immediately south of the M2 motorway (Great Britain), M2 motorway, south of Faversham. It is one of several hamlets making up the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Ospringe and is in the Borough o ...
, Kent since 1952 and is owned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United K ...
(Defra). The University of Reading
The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
took over day-to-day maintenance of the collection in 2008.
The collection includes two trees or bushes of each variety, in case one is lost.
References
External links
{{Official website
"Orchard Archives: The National Fruit Collection" by Dr Joan Morgan i
Studies in the History of British Fruit, part 2
in Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library, volume 7, March 2021
Botanical gardens in England
University of Reading
Government of the United Kingdom
Gardens in Kent
Orchards
1952 establishments in England