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Plum Tree Varieties
(continued - page 2)
Choosing Your Plum Tree (continued)
TASTE
The best way to make a decision on taste, is to understand a little
about the variety of plums available.
Bullace
-
strictly a cooking plum. The trees are smaller than
normal and very hardy, they are also ornamental. The fruit has a very
sharp flavour, excellent for jams and preserving.
Damson
- another cooking plum, but sweeter than the bullace. The
fruits are have a sharpish taste and are ideal for pies, tarts and jams.
Plum
- some are cooking and some are eating. These make up some
of the best plums for the UK climate.
Gage
- eating (desert) plums. These are some of the the sweetest
form of plum and they have a distinct 'plum' fragrance.
RECOMMENDED VARIETIES
Taste is a matter of personal preference, GardenAction list below some
popular varieties of plum which you may wish to consider.
Click on the plum variety names below for a picture.
VARIETY
POLLINATION
COMMENTS
Blue Tit
(plum)
Self-fertile
Bred in 1995 "Blue Tit" has an award of Garden Merit ( )
from the RHS.
As you will see if click on the name for the picture this is a real blue plum. The flavour is good and the shape is regular. This plum variety is self fertile, crops regularly in large amounts during August.
Self-fertile
Bred by Thomas Rivers in 1870. It is a cross between Prince Englebert x Early Prolific. It was named in honour of the Russian Emperor visiting at the time.
A good eating plum that produces medium-sized round or oval purple plums of good flavour. The flesh is yellow-green and very juicy. It is a good-cropper and hardier than most varieties
Dennistons
Superb
(gage)
Self-fertile
A great tasting gage, Denniston's Superb is amongst the best as far as eating plums go.
The pale green skin is tinged with a red flush. It reliably produces a good crop of plums in late summer.
Early Laxton (plum)
Part self-fertile
Bred by Laxton's of Bedford, it was first appeared in 1916 and was immediately awarded a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.
Cooker and eater but best for cooking. Medium-sized fruit, tinged with
pink. Sweet and juicy. The earliest of all plums, producing fruit in early August
.
Jefferson
(gage)
Pollinate with
A very reliable cropper producing largish juicy gages in mid
August.
Marjorie's Seedling (plum) Self-fertile
Raised by Burleydam Nurseries of Staffordshire. The plum tree was then sold to a Mr. C. Sykes of Bricklehampton, Worcestershire. His marriage was obviously a happy one because he named it after his wife, Marjorie.
A great eating plum, it produces fruit from mid September . Unusually, this plum keeps very well in the fridge, extending the eating period by up to 4 weeks .
Large oval blue-black plums. Juicy yellow flesh with a good flavour. A vigorous tree which produces a large number of plums.
Old
English Greengage
(gage)
Pollinate with
Czar or Victoria
Named after Sir William Gage who imported this variety to the UK in 1724.
This is the best taste of all varieties. The colourless flesh is full of flavour and juicy - a real treat. This is not a high yielding variety.
Victoria
(plum)
Self-fertile
A chance seedling found in a garden at Alderton Sussex. Introduced by Denyer of Brixton, London in 1840.
A popular variety with large fruits, and an excellent taste. The flesh is green to yellow and very juicy. A heavy cropper, producing fruit in September . Click here if you want to buy this plum tree online.
POLLINATION
Some plum tress are self-fertile, but many require a compatible plum
tree nearby (plum trees are not so common as apple trees) for
pollination to occur. Plum trees have a short and very distinct
pollination period (almost exactly ten days) so if you choose a tree
which is not self-fertile, be sure to also choose a compatible tree.
This is especially important if you choose a 'gage'.
Click here to see which varieties are self-fertile and those which are not self-fertile (compatible varieties are listed to help you choose a partner for your plum tree if necessary).
