Plum Trees

Plum trees are regularly grown in gardens in the UK and their fruit is traditionally made into jam and eaten on its own. They can also be made into a fruity wine or dried and eaten as prunes.

The trees flower in early spring and cover the tree in blossom. Normally around half of the flowers will turn into fruit but this can depend on the weather. If there is a late frost, the tree could lose all of its flowers, and the fruit set will be lower than normal – you may even not get any fruit at all if the frost is severe enough. If there has been very little rain, the fruit crop will suffer, and you will also get less fruit if it has been too wet.

Greengage

The Greengage is a close relative of the plum. It was developed in France and is small and oval-shaped. Unlike plums, they are green or yellow, and are the tastiest of eating plums.

Varieties of greengage include:

• Bryanston
• Cambridge Gage
• Golden Transparent
• Laxton's Gage
• Laxton's Supreme

Growing Plum Trees

Plum and gage trees are easily grown in the UK and need very little maintenance.

Choosing Your Plum Tree

If you want to grow your own plums, you will need to consider a few factors before buying your tree. How big do you want it to grow? Do you want cooking plums or eating plums? How many plum trees will you need in order to produce fruit?

How Big Will it Grow?

You can buy plum trees to suit nearly every type of garden. Fan trained trees only grow to a height of around 2m, and a width of 3m. They are ideally grown against a south or west-facing wall. You can also buy free-standing fruit trees, which grow to an eventual height of around 2.5m, and are ideal for smaller gardens, where a fan-trained tree wouldn’t be suitable.

Bush-trained plum trees are also an option. They are also freestanding, and grow to up to 4m in height. They are ideal for larger gardens. Growers looking for a really large tree might want to consider growing either a half standard tree (they grow to 6m), or standard plum trees (8m). You will need to use a ladder to reach the fruits from these trees, however.

Cooking or Eating?

The following guide will help you learn more about varieties of plum tree and the best one for your needs.

• Blue Tit – produces a large crop of delicious blue plums
• Czar - eating plum with yellow-green flesh
• Old English Greengage – best tasting of all gages, this tree produces a small crop of very juicy fruit

Pollination

Some plum tress are self-fertile, which means you will only need to buy one, but many require another tree growing nearby for pollination to occur. If you do choose a tree that requires another variety to cross-fertilise with, choose one that flowers at the same time.

Plum trees are varied and they are a fantastic choice of tree to grow in the garden. With the right conditions, they will produce masses of fruit every year that can be used for a variety of culinary treats.