Autumn is the best time to select and plant soft fruits. These are the fruits which are produced on canes, plants and bushes. Those like apples, pears and plums, which are harvested from trees, are referred to as top fruits.

Soft fruits include black and red currants, raspberries, strawberries and gooseberries, but also more unusual kinds like tayberries, loganberries, and white currants. All are of easy cultivation in an open situation, providing that the soil is well prepared and liberal amounts of well-rotted organic material are incorporated.

While it is possible to purchase soft fruit bushes and canes growing in containers at the garden centre, there is really no need to do so. Good strong plants lifted directly from open ground are freely available at this time of the year.

Choose sturdy well-branched bushes and, in the case of canes, those with strong thick stems. Strawberries can be purchased directly from open ground and planted bare-rooted, but young plants from pots or growing in peat plugs are likely to establish quicker.

Fortunately, with soft fruit there is no problem over having different varieties to pollinate each other as is common amongst apples, pears and plums. A single plant or variety is usually well able to guarantee a good crop, providing that there are plenty of insects about at flowering time.

There are many varieties of soft fruit and these are changing all the time, although amongst gooseberries the bright green Careless and golden green Leveller are well established. Of recent introductions, Invicta seems to have proved most popular and has been shown to have considerable resistance to mildew.

Blackcurrants are well represented by traditional varieties like Baldwin and Boskoop Giant, although Ben Lomond and Ben Connan are more recent varieties which are worth considering. Redcurrants have been dominated for years by Red Lake, but Rovada is an up and coming modern variety.

Raspberry varieties are endless, but those with the prefix Malling are all reliable, particularly Malling Jewel, Malling Promise and the more recent Malling Pegasus. For the autumn there is Autumn Bliss and if you are really adventurous a summer-fruiting yellow sort as well.

Blackberries are available in both prickly and non-prickly varieties, the lovely parsley-leafed blackberry being wonderful for the ornamental garden, but not a heavy cropper. Amongst the finest fruiting varieties are the traditional Himalayan Giant and the modern Silvan.

Strawberries come in endless varieties, but, as with raspberries where the prefix Malling is a guarantee of reliability, so Cambridge is with strawberries. Cambridge Favourite is almost foolproof, along with Cambridge Rival and Cambridge Vigour.

Red Gauntlet and Talisman are excellent varieties from the past, but now outstripped in terms of yield by modern kinds like Sophie, Calypso and Bogota. However, where quality is a prime requirement, it is still difficult to surpass Royal Sovereign.

If you grow strawberries, then include just a few plants of the alpine kind. These have tiny sweet fruits which are produced all summer long and are best from the variety Baron Solemacher.

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Q I have grown some plants of grapefruit and orange from pips. How do I keep them through the winter?

A Treat them as ordinary houseplants providing steady warmth and plenty of light. Water sparingly keeping the compost just damp, they should then remain as evergreens.

Q I have a green cordyline palm growing outside in the garden. It is about 7 feet high. It now has four trunks, can it be divided?

A If the branches are growing from below soil level, then it should be possible to divide in the spring. If they are sprouting from the stem, leave them alone.

Q My single chrysanthemum blooms are deformed with petals only around part of the centre. What has caused this?

A Deformities of chrysanthemums are usually caused by earwigs. The only satisfactory method of capturing them is to place inverted plant pots filled with dried grass on canes near the plants. The earwigs hide up in these during the day and can be removed.