Varieties of Flowering Plums

Types

• The cherry plum is an Asian tree, with multiple cultivars available on the market. Thundercloud, Pissadrii, Mt. St. Helens and Newport are all varieties of this flowering plum. The native flowering plums include the American plum, a species with a wide range across the eastern and central United States. The Chickasaw plum comes in shrub or tree form, native to the states of the Deep South. Stanley and Johnson are types of prune-plum cultivars -- dwarf trees developed mostly for their fruit, but still featuring spring flowers.

Geography

• The American plum is cold hardy to U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone three, but also grows into the warm regions of zone eight. Cherry plum is not so tolerant of cold weather, growing best from zone five through zone nine. Nevertheless, some cultivars display hardiness, with the Newport type best suited for chilly areas such as New England, according to the University of Connecticut Plant Database. The Chickasaw plum has a similar growing range as the cherry plum does, from zones five through nine. All flowering plum varieties grow well when planted in full sun locations.

Flowers

• The flowers of the cherry plum develop singly, growing to an inch wide. They are a shade of pink and white, opening prior to or just as any foliage buds out on the tree in April. Thundercloud, Newport and Mt. St. Helens feature purple foliage. Chickasaw plum generates flowers as early as March, with the blossoms in clusters of two or four and just ½ inch in diameter. White flowers about an inch wide develop in groups of between two and five on the bare branches of the American plum in March.

Drawbacks

• Plum species tend to develop new growth from their own roots. In the wild, most varieties form thickets in this manner. It is necessary to prune back and remove any unwanted new growth, or your flowering plums can spread out and take over the landscape. Plums such as American plum and Chickasaw plum feature spines that make working around the shrub or tree hazardous. The flowers of plums are not pleasantly aromatic. Instead, they have a pungent aroma.