A RYEDALE plant centre is getting ready for its annual Apple Weekend, showcasing more than 150 varieties of fruit.

RV Roger Nursery in Pickering is hosting the event on Saturday and Sunday, when there will be an award-winning display of bare-root apple trees, demonstrations of pruning and planting techniques and stalls selling food and drinks.

Expert staff will be giving free advice about what fruit trees to plant to suit the North Yorkshire conditions and identification of your own apples.

Ian Roger, the managing director of the plant centre, said: “You can grow some of the best apples yourself in your own front or back garden; in the middle of the lawn, or up against a fence.

“Early ones, late ones, cookers

and eaters, green ones, red ones, and yellow ones - they are all there, with flavours to delight every palate.”

The first Apple Day was celebrated by “Common Ground” in 1990 at an event in Covent Garden, which the RV Roger business contributed towards.

Apple Day has been celebrated every year since then, and by the millennium, it was being celebrated in more than 600 events around the UK.

Ian said: “That is why there are events like the Apple Weekend to continue to tell that story, to intrigue and delight, to tempt and inform about the joys of growing this most fantastic of fruit.”

The RV Roger nursery and Plant Centre was established 106 years ago in the Vale of Pickering by Royston Valentine Roger – the grandfather of the current owner, Ian Roger.

The nursery has developed into a nationally-recognised authority on fruit, growing and selling more than 240 different varieties of apples from the nursery orchards.

At the Harrogate and Malvern autumn shows in 2018, RV Roger celebrated a Premier Gold award, as well as Best in Show for 2018 at both venues.

Ian said: “For a modest-sized local business, to beat the best in the country year after year, is a cause for great celebration.

“It proves that we must be doing it right.”