Hey folks! I grabbed a couple of Hoops Cherry Plums from Fruitwood nursery when I was ordering pineapple guavas. They’re Prunus cerasifera. They’ve grown pretty quickly in the few months I’ve had them and I really like their fall colors that they just decided to show. Anyone grown these out for more than just rootstock? Just curious what I’m in for.
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i saw those. i almost ordered 2.
Looks like those are seedlings. Not sure why they would have a cultivar name attached unless they were line bred to come true from seed with parent trees kept isolated far from other plums (completely impractical).
They could be rooted cuttings. A number of P. cerasifera varieties selected for use as rootstocks are propagated as rooted cuttings.
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The tags say seedlings and the image shows genetic diversity in leaf color reinforcing that they are seedlings not a clone.
I just took a look at Fruitwood Nursery’s website. They have these listed under Asian plums (a name not typically used to reference P. cerasifera) and show “Hoops Yellow,” “Hoops Pink” and “Hoops Red Leaf.” All the plugs of these “varieties” are listed as seed grown from their mother trees. It sounds like by ordering one or the other you get to choose which mother tree it was grown from (but who knows which one provided the pollen). Each seedling will be unique. I don’t know why they wouldn’t just propagate from cuttings if they thought their mother trees were superior. Cherry plums are easier than the average plum to root from cuttings.
Cherry plums are naturalized here so I’ve had opportunity to observe quite a few. There’s definitely a lot of variation and room for selection. I’ve got a beautiful burgundy leaved seedling I selected which I’m currently evaluating. It never gets muddy colored (some of the red ones get pretty muddy looking by summer) and the first year twigs have so much pigment they look almost black. The flowers are pink, but this year was only its second attempt at blooming and we got hit hard by late freezes which destroyed many flowers on most of my fruit trees. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to evaluate its fruit, but at the very least it is gorgeous.
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