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- Sub-categories:
- Eating plums21
- Dual-purpose plums14
- Plums for cooking9
Plum trees
One of the easiest fruits to grow, we love plum trees and can advise on all aspects of choosing and planting them.
- Plum trees
Avalon
Avalon is a large mid-season red/purple plum, similar to Victoria, with a very good flavour.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Belle de Louvain
Belle de Louvain is a large purple culinary plum, useful because it can be grown on north-facing walls.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: Belgium
- Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Blaisdon Red
A popular red-purple plum, which produces a bright red plum jam.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Cambridge Gage
Cambridge Gage is a reliable green gage, similar to Old Green Gage, with an excellent flavour.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Coe's Golden Drop
Coe's Golden Drop is a large oval gage from the 18th century, noted for its excellent flavour.- Picking season: Very late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Czar
Czar is a traditional culinary plum, one of the easiest plums trees, will even fruit on north-facing walls.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Denbigh
A large red plum with an excellent for eating fresh and also good in the kitchen.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Denniston's Superb
Denniston's Superb is a gage-like green plum, raised in New York in the 19th century.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United States
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Early Transparent Gage
One of the easier gages to grow, Early Transparent has attractive semi-translucent fruit.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Edda
A good quality and cold-hardy early-season purple plum from Norway.- Picking season: Early
- Country of origin: Norway
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Excalibur
Excalibur is a red-purple plum, similar to Victoria but with a better flavour for eating fresh.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Gordon Castle
This late-season green plum originates from Scotland and has an excellent sweet flavour.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 4
- Plum trees
Guinevere
Guinevere is a modern late-season dessert plum, with a good flavour.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Haganta
Haganta is a new large blue plum from Germany, one of the latest-ripening and an excellent flavour.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: Germany
- Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Hauszwetsche German Prune
Hauszwetsche is a damson-like Quetsche or Zwetsche plum, ideal for German-style cakes and desserts.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: Germany
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 4
- Plum trees
Herman
Herman is one of the best quality early-season plum varieties, blue/purple with yellow flesh.- Picking season: Early
- Country of origin: Sweden
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Katinka
Katinka is an excellent early season eating plum.- Picking season: Very early
- Country of origin: Germany
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Kirke's Blue
An old-fashioned blue plum with a rich sweet flavour.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Lindsey Gage
Lindsey Gage is a sweet-flavoured green gage, similar to Cambridge Gage.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Marjorie's Seedling
Marjorie's Seedling is an easy to grow, late-season, heavy cropping purple/black plum.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Old Green Gage
The definitive gage - Old Green Gage is arguably the best-flavoured of any plum variety.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: France
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Opal
Opal is an early plum variety with a good flavour, self-fertile and very easy to grow.- Picking season: Early
- Country of origin: Sweden
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Purple Pershore
Very similar to Yellow Pershore and with the same excellent culinary qualities.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 4
- Plum trees
Reine Claude de Bavay
The most widely-grown green gage, Reine Claude de Bavay has the distinctive gage-like flavour.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: Belgium
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Reine Claude Doree
A high-quality yellow-green gage, and usually more productive than other green gages.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: France
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Reine Claude Violette
A traditional French gage first recorded in the 18th century, noted for its excellent flavour. Also known as Purple Gage.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: France
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Rivers' Early Prolific
Early Prolific is a very heavy-cropping early-season plum, raised by the famous Rivers nursery.- Picking season: Early
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Seneca
Seneca is a high-quality late-season large American plum with a notably sweet flavor.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United States
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Stella's Star
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
- Plum trees
Thames Cross
Thames Cross is a versatile dual-purpose plum, related to Coe's Golden Drop.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Partially self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Warwickshire Drooper
Warwickshire Drooper is a good quality dual-purpose yellow plum, with heavy crops.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 2
- Plum trees
Willingham
A traditional English green gage, with a reputation for excellent flavour.- Picking season: Late
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Flowering group: 3
- Plum trees
Yellow Pershore
Also known as Yellow Egg, Yellow Pershore is a self-fertile heavy cropping culinary plum.- Picking season: Mid
- Country of origin: United Kingdom
- Self-fertility: Self-fertile
- Flowering group: 4
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.