Not all nuts are suitable for UK garden growing. True nuts include Sweet Chestnuts, Beechnuts, Acorns, Hazelnuts and Hornbeams. True nuts are a simple dry fruit with one seed in which the seed case becomes very hard on maturity. True nuts do not split apart like Brazil nuts or Horse chestnuts but the seed and the fruit are one and the same.

Larger Trees for Larger Gardens.

• If you have the space for real trees then consider Walnuts and Sweet Chestnuts. You will get a good crop from trees that can eventually grow to over 30 feet high.
• Walnuts are not nuts but are botanically called ‘drupes’. This is a fruit with a fleshy outer coating enclosing a hard shell that contains a seed. The best variety to grow in the UK is Broadview as it is slightly resistant to frost during flowering. It is a compact tree that crops well at an early stage.
• Sweet Chestnuts produce Marron nuts or Chestnuts. Marigoule variety produces large nuts after 2-4 years.
• If space is limited you can grow them in a root bag.

Hazel Nuts and Relatives

• Unlike other fruiting trees, the hazelnuts bloom and pollinates in the middle of winter. Wind carries the pollen from catkins (male flowers) to small red female flowers, where pollination occurs. The flowers remain inactive until spring, when fertilisation occurs and the nuts begin to develop.
• Cobnuts are similar to Hazels, easy to grow, productive and ornamental. They have catkins and need two varieties close together for cross pollination
• Cosford is one of the sweetest flavoured cob nuts with thin shells.
• Kentish cob is a popular Filbert or European Filbert Corylus avellana with long nuts well flavoured nuts. The Purple Filbert produces striking catkins.

Nuts for warmer climates

Peanuts are not nuts, it may be hard to believe but they are peas or at least part of the Pea family. If you compare the pods of peas and peanuts you will see what we mean. Monkey nuts, groundnuts, Manila nuts, earthnuts and goobers are all just other names for peanuts.

Cashew nuts are drupe seeds from the poison ivy family and the seed lining contains an irritating lining. Almonds, pistachios and pine nuts are not nuts either.

Coconuts must be nuts then, no I am afraid not they are another drupe. Nor do coconuts contain coconut milk but coconut water. Coconut milk is made by grating the flesh into water then straining it.

Macadamia nut is just a creamy white kernel and Brazil nuts are seeds in a pod.

Drupes are also fleshy fruit, such as a peach, plum, almond or cherry, usually having a single hard stone that encloses a seed which may be why they are also called stone fruit.

Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of Prunus dulcis a tree popular in the Middle East and Asia.

“My Nuts by alfromelkhorn, on Flickr many thanks Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)