Spring is well underway but I must take care of my blossom on the Victoria plum. It looks fantastic at the moment and speaks of a good crop this summer but a nip of frost just now would be a real let down. Plums are prone to frost damage and as I am prone to eat Plum jam I will try protect this tree and its blossom.

As the tree has grown above a safe picking height I will trim the upper branches later in summer when the danger of silver leaf disease is much lower.

To augment my plum crop I planted a Czar plum (see below) at the beginning of 2008 and it is showing a very upright habit. This I will encourage into a bowl like shape to get air and light into the centre of the tree for future years. At the moment the rhubarb is a bit too rampant under the plum so I think it will have to come out .

Czar
Czar is an old variety and a good eating plum that produces medium-sized round or oval purple plums. They have of good flavour.
The flesh is yellow-green, sharper than a Victoria and very juicy for picking in August.
It is a good-cropper and hardier than most varieties suitable for the North of England

Victoria
Also a 19th century variety with large fruits, and an excellent taste.
A heavy cropper, producing fruit in September with flesh that is very juicy and green to yellow.

The UK National Fruit collection has a prunus armenica and prunus domestica (Plum) collections in Brogdale with 305 varieties.

The earliest ripening plum in the collection at the RHS is usually ‘Early Laxton’ in July while the latest is ‘Golden Bullace’ in October. Some of the best flavoured are known as gages including ‘The Old Greengage’ (also known as ‘Reine Claude’)