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  3. Plum trees

Plum trees

One of the easiest fruits to grow, we love plum trees and can advise on all aspects of choosing and planting them.

  • Avalon plum tree
    Avalon is a large mid-season red/purple plum, similar to Victoria, with a very good flavour.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Belle de Louvain plum tree
    Belle de Louvain is a large purple culinary plum, useful because it can be grown on north-facing walls.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: Belgium

  • Cambridge Gage plum tree
    Cambridge Gage is a reliable green gage, similar to Old Green Gage, with an excellent flavour.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Coe's Golden Drop plum tree
    Coe's Golden Drop is a large oval gage from the 18th century, noted for its excellent flavour.
    • Picking season: Very late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Czar plum tree
    Czar is a traditional culinary plum, one of the easiest plums trees, will even fruit on north-facing walls.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Denniston's Superb plum tree
    Denniston's Superb is a gage-like green plum, raised in New York in the 19th century.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: United States

  • Early Transparent Gage plum tree
    One of the easier gages to grow, Early Transparent has attractive semi-translucent fruit.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Edda plum tree
    A good quality and cold-hardy early-season purple plum from Norway.
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: Norway

  • Excalibur plum tree
    Excalibur is a red-purple plum, similar to Victoria but with a better flavour for eating fresh.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Guinevere plum tree
    Guinevere is a modern late-season dessert plum, with a good flavour.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Haganta plum tree
    Haganta is a new large blue plum from Germany, one of the latest-ripening and an excellent flavour.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: Germany

  • Hauszwetsche German Prune plum tree
    Hauszwetsche is a damson-like Quetsche or Zwetsche plum, ideal for German-style cakes and desserts.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 4
    • Country of origin: Germany

  • Herman plum tree
    Herman is one of the best quality early-season plum varieties, blue/purple with yellow flesh.
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: Sweden

  • Jefferson plum tree
    Jefferson is a a large yellow gage / plum, easy to grow, crops well, very juicy and great flavour.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: United States

  • Jubilee plum tree
    Jubilee is a new heavy-cropping dessert plum variety, similar to Victoria but larger and more reliable.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: Sweden

  • Kirke's Blue plum tree
    An old-fashioned blue plum with a rich sweet flavour.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Lindsey Gage is a sweet-flavoured green gage, similar to Cambridge Gage.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Marjorie's Seedling plum tree
    Marjorie's Seedling is an easy to grow, late-season, heavy cropping purple/black plum.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • An attractive new early-season dessert plum from Sweden, with large fruits and good cold-hardiness.
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: France

  • Old Green Gage plum tree
    The definitive gage - Old Green Gage is arguably the best-flavoured of any plum variety.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: France

  • Opal plum tree
    Opal is an early plum variety with a good flavour, self-fertile and very easy to grow.
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: Sweden

  • Purple Pershore plum tree
    Very similar to Yellow Pershore and with the same excellent culinary qualities.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 4
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Reine Claude de Bavay plum tree
    The most widely-grown green gage, Reine Claude de Bavay has the distinctive gage-like flavour.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: Belgium

  • A high-quality yellow-green gage, and usually more productive than other green gages.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: France

  • A traditional French gage first recorded in the 18th century, noted for its excellent flavour. Also known as Purple Gage.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: France

  • Rivers' Early Prolific plum tree
    Early Prolific is a very heavy-cropping early-season plum, raised by the famous Rivers nursery.
    • Picking season: Early
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Seneca plum tree
    Seneca is a high-quality late-season large American plum with a notably sweet flavor.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United States

  • Stella's Star plum tree
    A modern green-gage, more productive and easier to grow in the UK than the traditional ones.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3

  • Thames Cross plum tree
    An attractive yellow mid-season plum with a good flavour.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Victoria plum tree
    Victoria is the classic English plum - attractive fruit, good for eating, and outstanding flavour for cooking. It's also easy to grow and very productive.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 3
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • Warwickshire Drooper plum tree
    Warwickshire Drooper is a good quality dual-purpose yellow plum, with heavy crops.
    • Picking season: Late
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 2
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

  • A traditional English green gage, with a reputation for excellent flavour.

  • Yellow Pershore plum tree
    Also known as Yellow Egg, Yellow Pershore is a self-fertile heavy cropping culinary plum.
    • Picking season: Mid
    • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
    • Flowering group: 4
    • Country of origin: United Kingdom

How to choose Plum trees

If you are new to growing fruit trees, plum trees make an excellent choice. Plum trees are easy to grow - usually easier than apples and pears - and require very little training or pruning. The only horticultural challenge is that plums flower quite early in spring, so locations that are prone to frosts are best avoided (or choose a late-flowering or frost-resistant variety). They thrive in most conditions, but they prefer water-retentive soils, and mulching is therefore particularly important for plum trees - farmyard manure is ideal.

Unlike most apples and pears, many plum varieties are self-fertile or partially self-fertile and do not need a pollination partner. For plum varieties that are not self-fertile, another plum tree of a different variety flowering at the same time is usually all that is necessary to ensure good pollination and heavy crops - there are few of the pollination incompatibilities found with apples, pears and cherries.

Plums are also more nutrient-rich than apples or pears, and comparable to some other "superfoods" such as blueberries. Although plum trees do suffer from a range of diseases, they seem to catch them less often than other fruit varieties. Most important of all, the flavour of ripe home-grown plums is vastly superior to shop-bought fruit. Indeed in our opinion freshly-picked dessert plums can offer the most exquisite sweet flavours of any fruit available from the temperate garden.