A TV gardener is ensuring he can still taste real cider while living in Sweden by ordering more than 1,000 apple trees from Herefordshire.

John Taylor is known in the Scandinavian country for his role in garden shows and he has plenty to tell viewers after importing the trees to Malmö so he can get his scrumpy fix.

"When I taste a good dry cider, I just get goose pimples," he told The Local, an English language news website based in Sweden.

"The idea is just to produce a very good quality craft cider from what you and I would call cider apples."

Since stepping down as head gardener at Malmö’s castle garden in 2017, he now has enough time to pursue other ventures. This led the Sheffield-born Brit to team up with Håkan Hansson, the wine-making pioneer behind Hällåkra Vingård outside Malmö.

"We have one hectare of land, and we have found a really good collaborating partner," he said of Hällåkra. "We’re planting 1,100 trees. They will fruit in the autumn, and that cider will be ready one year from now."

Hällåkra plans to sell the cider at its vineyard alongside its wine and other local Scanian delicacies.

The difference between Taylor's cider and that currently produced in Sweden is that his will be made from real English cider apples, rather than from the much sweeter eating apples used by the few Swedish producers.

"You don’t get that scrumpy feel," Mr Taylor said of the Swedish cider.

"There’s no dryness in eating apples. They’ve got no tannins in them.

"These are proper, unique cider varieties. These varieties don’t exist in Sweden."

The trees' journey from John Worle's nursery in Weobley to Sweden takes three days, and includes a ferry trip from the Hook of Holland.

Mr Taylor made the first trip in October last year, bringing back 300 trees. His next trip will be made tomorrow (Friday) when he will bring back 800 cider apple trees and 30 perry pear trees.

When the orchard starts producing next year, Mr Taylor aims to supply restaurants and a few select bars before increasing production and selling the drink more widely in coming years.

"It’s a massive investment in terms of cost. It’s the biggest investment of my life," he added.