Planning, ordering, and planting your home orchard, caring for your new trees and bringing them to fruition, and propagating your trees for the future- find all your growing-related questions answered here.
General Questions
1. Where is the orchard located?
We're at 2545 Rural Ridge Lane, North Garden VA 22959, 10 minutes South of Charlottesville, VA, directly off of 29 South.
2. Can I visit the orchard?
Most times of the year, the orchard is open to the public. Occasionally, access may be limited at our discretion. We are open year-round, Wed-Sun, 11-5. We sell fruit in season and have a tasting room for our cider. We offer several workshops that feature some time spent in our orchard- check out our workshop schedule for dates and details.
3. How do I contact you?
You can call us at 434 297 2326, or send us an email by visiting our Contact Us page.
4. What is the timeline for your nursery?
We open our catalog in late November and start shipping trees the first week of December. Trees may be shipped or picked up at the orchard. There will be the option of several different shipping dates throughout our season (December to March). The catalog will close for orders mid-March.
5. Can I pre-order trees?
We do not take pre-orders. We will accept orders starting with the catalog opening in late November.
6. Do you guarantee your trees?
If your tree does not leaf out the first spring, we will replace your tree the next season. Please contact us as soon as possible to recieve instruction on how to get your replacement tree. We will not replace trees that have leafed out and then died due to dehydration, pest damage, disease, neglect, etc. For best results, please follow our planting guidelines. If you are not satisfied with your tree for any other reason, please contact us.
7. Which fruit trees are right for my orchard?
There are several basic questions to answer before deciding on varieties of fruit to plant:
- What are your goals? Do you want apples for eating fresh, for cooking, or for making cider? Is it important to you to have peaches or plums for canning or for eating fresh? Are you planning a commercial-scale venture, or do you just want to spend a few hours a week caring for your orchard?
- Next, consider your region, and search for varieties known to do well there. Do you need something cold tolerant, that will bloom and fruit in just a few short months, or is resistance to diseases common to hot, humid climates more important
- Once you've whittled it down to a few varieties suitable to your purposes and climate, consider bloom time. Are the varieties you've chosen self-pollinating, or do they require one or more other cultivars to pollinate successfully? What time of year do they bloom? For diploid or triploid cultivars, look for one or two other members of that same species that bloom in the same time frame. These time frames may be referred to descriptively, ie. early summer, late fall, mid fall, etc., or they may be assigned a letter a, b, c, or d, corresponding to early, early-mid, late-mid, or late season. Thus, a Grimes Golden apple tree blooming in the a, b, and c time frames is considered a universal pollinator, and its blossoms can fertilize many other apple varieties blooming in any one of those categories.
8. Do you offer scion wood for sale?
We do not currently offer scionwood for sale. For places to purchase scionwood, look at our list of sources under our Resources and Links tab, and of course you can grow your own from one of our trees!
9. How big will my trees be? Do I need a trailer to transport them?
Unless you have ordered a large number of trees (12+), your order will most likely fit in any mid-size vehicle (or spacious compact). In general, the trees will be between 3 and 6 feet tall/long- if they are being shipped to you, they will not be longer than 6 feet, and if you are picking up, they can be trimmed to fit in your vehicle. One year old trees are generally single whips with little to no side branching. The trees will be bare root, with a bag to protect the roots.
