Classic Gardening Magazine | Gardening as it ought to be

So there you have it, miracles do happen. I do have three cherries on my tree. But not many more than three.

So a bit of a muted miracle then. I was in Kent a few days ago, and came across the site of the very first cherry orchards in the county now synonymous with them.

That was some consolation, but what to do with my tree that will not fruit? I've looked at the possibilities. That it is starved of water, or of food, that the blossom is begin hit by frost or that the developing fruit is being stripped.

I've fed it, mulched and watered it. I've pruned it diligently at the end of each non-fruiting season to ensure there is plenty of new growth - fruit only develops on young shoots. I've draped it in Hessian in spring to protect the blossom from frost.

But still, no fruit for the last ten years. Which means that, when it comes to cherries, I have to go to Kent to enjoy them.

Henry VIII had the first cherry orchards planted at the village of Teynham in Kent in 1533. He also introduced the first commercially organised apple orchards, and hence is responsible for Kent’s reputation to this day as the Garden of England.

The Flemish cherries, plus pippins and golden rennets planted by Henry’s fruiterer, Richard Harris, on 105 acres at this village between Sittingbourne and Faversham are said to have gone on to stock all of Kent’s fruit farms. The orchards of the East Kent fruit belt quickly went on to supply apples, pears, cherries and plums for London’s burgeoning population.

Cherries have a prominent place on the coat of arms of Sittingbourne and Milton

The National Fruit Collections at Brogdale, close to those first King’s Orchards at Teynham, contain two trees of each of 2,300 varieties of apple. Organic apple juice is produced alongside those original orchards.

Here’s someone who likes their cherries.