The Orchards

The five acres of orchards at Waterperry Gardens date back to the days of Beatrix Havergal who ran her famous school of horticulture for ladies until 1972. In fact current Orchard manager Chris Lanczak trained under Miss Havergal and has worked at Waterperry for more than forty years, helped by his ‘second in command’ Jules Watling.

Between them they grow around fifty different varieties of apple – including more unusual types like Ashmeads Kernel, Orleans Reinette and Kidd’s Orange. But they also grow old favourites like Cox’s Orange Pippin, Bramley and Egremont Russet. From the end of August until the new year, our Garden Shop is bursting with different apples alongside boxes of the good keeping varieties.

Apple juice is available all year round from Waterperry’s Garden Shop and online and from several other retail outlets. These include Gluttons Deli in Jericho, Wells Stores in Abingdon, The Arches at Watlington, the Crazy Bear at Stadhampton, Sandy Lane Farm Shop at Tiddington, Rectory Farm at Stanton St John and the Farm Shop at Berwick Salome. Our juice is also served to guests breakfasting at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and at Lassco’s coffee shop at Milton Common.

Waterperry apples are grown, harvested and juiced onsite using time-honoured methods, which means our fruit and juices are low on food miles and high on taste. Plums and pears are also available in season along with bare root Waterperry fruit trees from the end of November to late March. We grow 3 different varieties of plum: Marjories Seedling, Victoria and Opal and 7 varieties of pear: Comice, Conference, Buerre Hardy, Williams, Gorham, Glou Morceau and Merton Pride as well as Greengages and Damsons.

Apple weekend is one of the biggest events in Waterperry’s annual calendar, when visitors have the chance to sample fruit, get advice and information and even have their mystery apple crops identified (this weekend only). And when it comes to the festive time of year, visit us for your Waterperry grown Christmas tree – all grown by Chris and Jules and available at very competitive rates.

IPM. The Orchard team constantly monitor disease and pests amongst the fruit crops, only spraying when it is needed. There are only certain pesticides that can be used which break down in the environment. The pesticides they use are very specific to what they control and will only target and kill specific species. IPM is seen as sensible farming.

Waterperry Gardens - The Orchards
Waterperry Gardens - The Orchards
Apple Orchard - Waterperry Gardens - The Orchards