2024 June 7 Plums

 As soon as I bought this house in 2012, I put in Asparagus, Rhubarb, Concord Grapes, and a Jefferson Plum tree, and some other random plants. I found the Plum at Marc’s, a bargain store that had some leftovers from a nursery for sale. It was a sad looking plant and I bought it because I felt bad for it. 

The Jefferson Plum is supposedly a hybrid from American colonial days. Somewhere I read that Jefferson combined a native plum and a European Plum. Maybe. Mine has always been a bit twisty, lumpy and sickly. It produces though.

The branches are full of fruit this year. Notice how it is touching the Mulberry tree? The grapevines have come all the way around to it. So far, no effect on productivity. 

No matter how I do the pruning in the fall, it looks crazy the next year. There is a significant lean to the tree and I guess some of the newer branches want to hit the garage.

Last year the plums were looking AWESOME and almost ripe. I decided to wait just one more day to harvest them. Carli and I went to run errands and every last plum was gone by the afternoon. SQUIRRELS DAGNABBIT

I bought a second Plum tree from Aldi and planted it on the anniversary of my dad dying in 2015. There used to be a red leaf plum tree in my neighborhood growing up and I remember eating them with my dad one evening. My hope was to help my Jefferson Plum through cross-pollination. I didn’t realize the tree I chose was “ornamental”. It’s really beautiful and FULL of pink flowers in the spring. I believe it’s called a Cherry Plum. It’s an Asian variety. 

To my surprise, we found exactly one plum growing on the Cherry Plum this year. It’s actually gone now. SQUIRRELS! But I did take a picture. 

This is the first and only plum this tree has produced. 

I wonder if someone else in the neighborhood planted a plum tree that cross pollinates? I hope next year we get more!