Varieties of Plums

European Plums

• European plums are commercially produced for fresh eating and canning. Several varieties are dried into prunes. "Reine Claude de Bavay" produces a large yellow-fleshed fruit with rich, sweet flavor on a self-fruitful, late-bearing tree. The yellow skin has white dots. "Fellenburg" is a self-fruitful tree bearing sweet black fruit with yellow flesh late in mid-season. The fruits are used fresh, canned or dried as prunes. "Seneca" requires any European plum to pollinate. Its fruit is especially flavorful and sweet with red skin and yellow flesh. It is a late bearer. Select cultivars suited to your locale.

Japanese Plums

• "Golden Nectar" is a self-fruitful tree producing very large, sweet fruit with yellow skin and flesh. This flavorful plum has as small pit. "Emerald Beaut" requires a pollinator. Its light green-skinned fruit with orange-yellow flesh and remarkably sweet, rich flavor is borne in mid-season. "Elephant Heart" yields large red-skinned fruit with deliciously flavored red flesh over a long harvest period beginning in midseason. It requires pollination with "Santa Rosa." Japanese plums are generally less cold-tolerant than European varieties. Consult your local nursery for guidance.

Damson Plums

• The Romans likely distributed Damson plums through Europe. The fruit of damson plums is tart and not suitable for fresh eating. Damson plums are used in cooking and preserves. "Shropshire," "Blue Damson" and "French Damson" are varieties of Damson plums for the home garden. The self-fruitful trees have a low chilling requirement and are late-bearing. The very tart small fruit has blue-black or purple skin and green flesh.

Wild American Plum

• Wild or American plums are thorny, freely suckering shrubs. The fruit is eaten fresh and used to make jams and jellies. Wild plums are primarily useful as windbreaks and highway plantings. The thickets provide habitat for songbirds, though birds are uninterested in the fruit as a food source. Deer graze on the foliage. Native Americans used wild plums to treat skin abrasions.

Hybrid Varieties

• Plums are crossed with related cherry, peach or apricot trees to develop interesting fruits or improve the hardiness or vigor of the tree. "Opata," a sandcherry cross, grows as a bush, producing decorative but somewhat messy small fruits suitable for preserves. Developed in South Dakota, it is cold-hardy even in Alaska. "Superior" is a Japanese-American cross. The cold-hardy tree bears large golden-russet fruit with firm, sweet yellow flesh that is slightly tart under the skin.