Start with your soil, sun and shelter

Before you fall for a glossy catalogue photograph, look at what your garden already offers. Apples are adaptable, but they crop best in a sunny, sheltered spot with deep, well-drained soil. A pH between 6.0 and 7.0 suits most varieties, though they tolerate slightly acid or alkaline ground. The real killer is waterlogging: if your soil sits wet in winter, plant on a slight mound or choose a tolerant rootstock. Heavy clay benefits from compost and grit; thin chalky soils need organic matter and careful watering in dry spells. Aim for at least six hours of sun a day. Avoid frost pockets, where early blossom can be cut down, and exposed, windy corners, which discourage pollinating insects. In milder western and southern counties you can risk later-flowering varieties; in colder northern gardens, choose early-ripening types that finish before autumn frosts.

Match the rootstock to your space

The rootstock is the engine under the bonnet. It controls how big your tree becomes and how soon it fruits. For a small garden or a large pot, M27 or M9 keep trees compact, though they need staking and regular watering. M26 makes a neat semi-dwarf tree for a lawn or border. MM106 suits a medium garden and heavier soil, while M25 is a full-size traditional orchard tree for those with room to spare. If space is tight, train a cordon, espalier or stepover along a wall or fence. These forms are productive and easy to pick. A very dwarf tree in a pot will always be more demanding than one in open ground, so only choose a container if you can water it faithfully.

Decide what you want from the fruit

Think about the kitchen and the glass as well as the garden. Dessert apples are for eating fresh: Discovery is early and sharp, Cox's Orange Pippin is the classic rich, aromatic choice, and Egremont Russet has a nutty, pear-drop flavour that stores well. Cookers break down into fluffy puree; Bramley's Seedling is the British standard, but it is a triploid, so it needs two different pollination partners. Dual-purpose varieties such as Lord Lambourne or Katy earn their keep in a small garden. For cider, the rules change. True cider apples are classified as bittersweet, bittersharp, sharp or sweet. Dabinett and Yarlington Mill are bittersweet Somerset favourites, Kingston Black is a bittersharp, and Tremlett's Bitter adds tannin and body. Most gardeners blend varieties rather than relying on one, because balance is what makes a good pint.

Choose for health and local character

Disease pressure varies enormously across Britain. Scab, canker and powdery mildew are the usual suspects in damp, mild regions. Some varieties shrug them off; others sulk. Ashmead's Kernel and Worcester Pearmain have useful resistance to scab, while many traditional cider varieties are robust because they evolved in wet western orchards. If you garden in a damp area, avoid highly susceptible varieties such as Bramley unless you are prepared to spray or accept blemished fruit. It is also worth seeking out local varieties: a tree that has thrived in your county for a century is likely to suit your soil and climate better than a fashionable import. Visit community orchards, farmers' markets or county apple days to taste what grows well nearby. That is also where you will hear the best advice, freely given.

Get pollination right, then plant with tradition

Most apples are not self-fertile, so you will need a compatible partner flowering at the same time. Varieties are placed in pollination groups, usually numbered 1 to 6, with group 1 flowering earliest. Choose two from the same group or adjacent groups. Triploids, including Bramley, Blenheim Orange and Ribston Pippin, cannot pollinate others and need two non-triploid partners. A nearby crab apple can act as a universal pollinator, and it will bring in bees. If your neighbours have apple trees within about 100 metres, you may already have help. Never rely on a single tree unless it is reliably self-fertile, such as Queen Cox or Alkmene. British cider culture grew from exactly this kind of practical choosing. In Herefordshire, Somerset, Devon and Kent, growers planted mixes of bittersweet and sharp apples because no single variety gave the right balance. You can follow that tradition on a domestic scale: plant a dessert apple for fresh eating, a cooker for the kitchen, and a cider variety or two for pressing. Add a crab apple for pollination and beauty. Learn to prune in winter, thin fruit in early summer, and store apples in a cool, dark, frost-free place. Join a wassail in January, when neighbours gather to toast the trees and wake the orchard. Whether you have a half-acre or a single sunny wall, the principles are the same: suit the variety to the place, and the place will reward you with blossom, fruit and a glass of something distinctly British.