As this trait is carried in the fruiting part of the plant it is only found in the special ballerina varieties e.g. Waltz, Polka etc. You could not for example get a ballerina Cox’s Orange Pippin.

The minarette trees, on the other hand, are standard varieties that are made to grow in a columnar fashion by regular training. I would prefer to grow the minarettes as you can have your favourite varieties grafted on to a dwarfing rootstock, making them suitable for most gardens or even large tubs.

Modern patio fruit trees are now available which can all be grown successfully in containers, so you can turn your terrace into an orchard overnight.

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Yes, you have a classic case of Pyracantha scab, a fungal disease related to apple scab and black spot of roses.

All these problems are encouraged by the wetter summers that we have had for the past few years and the spores over winter on the leaves and around some of the buds.

Collect up the fallen leaves and dispose of them in the dustbin along with any of the shrivelled fruits from the ground and cut from the branches.

Also look out for any leaves on the plant showing greyish or khaki spots and remove them too. Next spring spray the foliage with a good fungicide like Bio Systhane or Scotts Spotless, repeating the dose at 14-day intervals until the berries form.

Some varieties show a marked resistance to the disease including Golden Charmer, Shawnee and Golden Charmer.

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Growing any plants under trees can be a problem, but attempting to do so beneath a Walnut is subject to an additional disadvantage. You see Walnut leaves contain a substance that helps to prevent other plants growing where they fall in autumn ie. under the canopy of the tree.

Then you have the roots to contend with as well. If you must try to grow plants in the soil I would make a raised bed – about 45cm (18in)tall using sleepers or a length of log roll.

Build an inner wall about 30 cm (1ft) away from the trunk, all around it in order to keep the soil away from the tree as this may cause damage.

Otherwise lay some weed control fabric under the tree and cover this with gravel and place tubs on this, which you could fill with seasonal colour.

Plants for growing under the tree could include Aucuba, Euonymus, Mahonia, Pachysandra, Rubus Tricolour, Cotoniaster Skogholm, Prunus Otto Luyken, Skimmia, Vinca. Perennials: Ajuga, Alchemilla, Astrantha, Clyclamen Hederifolium, Epimedcum, Geranium Machrorrhizum, Iris Foetisdissima, Lamium, Pulmonaria.

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One of the problems with fast growing evergreen Screens eg Cu. Leylandii conifers is that they keep on growing like mad and so need regular trimming to keep them under control. I think that a much better and more instant method is to put up some ornamental close meshed trellis panels.

If you choose the ones with upward curving tops they can be nearly 7ft tall and as soon as they are erected you have an instant screen. To make this denser add some attractive climbers, among the evergreen ones are Lonicera Henry II, Akebia Quinnata, Trachelospermum, Clematis Armamdii, as well as wall shrubs like Ceanothus, Pyrachantha and Cotoneasters like Salicifolius and Rothschildianus.

Fitting a gravel board under each panel would help to preserve the wood and raise the height of the trellis even more.

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Can you recommend a clematis to flower from June to October - preferably a double. I want to grow it up an obelisk.
Joy Lea, Mitcheldean

Most of the double clematis will only produce double flowers during May/June but then they do flower again from August to Late September but this time they have smaller single blooms.

Another thing that I feel I must warn you about is the tendancy for double flowered varieties to suffer from Clematis wilt. This is a fungal disease that strikes just when the plant is at its zenith, causing it to wilt back to the ground.It is not fatal and if it should strike you just cut the plant back to ground level from where it will sprout next Spring.

When new shoots appear spray them with Systhane Fungus Fighter and repeat the dose 10 days later. If you still wish to grow a double variety among the most popular are Vyvyan Pennell. Dark mauve purple and Josephine a bright pink.

A very good single variety that is very reliable and flowers on and off all Summer is Ernest Markham, a turkey neck red.

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I would wait until the foliage has fallen off and them move the plant. Dig it up carefully taking a large ball of soil with the roots to its new location and plant it deeply so that the soil will protect the crown of the plant if we get a lot of frost over the winter. You never know - we've had a few mild ones lately.

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In my experience slugs do not live in ponds, although of course aquatic snails do! If what you saw was a slug it could have arrived in the pond by accident and was just managing to find its way out when you saw it, but I feel that what you saw could well have been some form of leech.

These certainly do live in ponds and I frequently used to encounter them living in aquatic plant tanks when I was a garden centre manager. In any case I shouldn't worry about it, think of it as one of the less attractive works of nature.

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