Woodbridge Fruit Trees will close permanently in September 2025 at the end of this year’s bare rooted season. I want to thank you all for your business and support to make this venture such a success, helping my Dad (Bob Magnus) and I spread our love of interesting and heritage plants across Australia for people to grow in their orchards and back yards.

Why are you closing? Running a small business is complex and multifaceted. Over recent years, the effort needed to grow plants has increased with pressures on land and water availability, hot summers, pest management, and the availability of stable skilled nursery workers. Everything costs more - from insurance, packaging, shipping costs, labour, and running a website. It has been amazing to be part of the process of raising so many trees: grafting, planting, watering, pruning, digging, sorting, labeling, parceling, shipping, and all the logistics that go along with that. For me to run and coordinate all this makes my winters super busy and stressful, each season has major challenges that need to be overcome. It's taken its toll, and I'm looking forward to quieter winters, and using the time for other pursuits.

Are you selling the business? No. There have been people interested in purchasing the business, but those have fallen through because of their various circumstances. For most, the obstacle has been the cost of obtaining their own growable land / sheds to operate the business on.

What will happen to all those old varieties of apples and pears? I’ve planted an orchard of two of each of apple and pear varieties, so the varieties will be preserved. Perhaps my daughter will be able to sell scion wood cuttings in the future. 

I wanted to get more plants from you. Who will be selling those varieties now? No-one to my knowledge, although perhaps a motivated young horticulturalist will step up to meet the demand. Feel free to purchase plants from this year’s catalogue and pot them up for a year if you’re not quite ready to plant in the ground this winter. I've listed some 25L pots for sale. 

Happy Gardening, and again thanks for all your support. Nik Magnus