Does anyone know where I can purchase an Eastham variety beach plum? Actually, I’d be interested in learning about ANY actual selections that are available in the trade. I do already have one of Ken Asmus’ ECOS BPs, and had a Nana but lost it. I have also been growing the “Resigno” variety (from seed) for several years, selected over at least one generation by a south Jersey gentlemen, with seeds occasionally offered for sale on eBay. All my other BPs were grown from seed from wild (Cape Henlopen DE, one unknown from a fruit tasting I attended) bushes.
Any leads anyone has on fruiting BP varieties (as opposed to those selected for ornamental or erosion prevention) for actual sale in the trade would be very much appreciated, especially if you’re aware of a source for some of the older varieties (‘Raribank’ ‘Hancock’ ‘Eastham’ ‘Autum’…).
Oh, and I would also be interested in scionwood if anyone has any improved selections. Was reading here about some obtained from Dr Richard Uva that sounded promising!
I grew up near, and actually went to highschool on, the site of the former army base, Ft. Hancock (Sandy Hook, NJ) Several superior types were collected and named there. Only one is mentioned in the Arnoldia article I posted below, but Lee Reich’s book lists several other selections made there. I wish I were closer to investigate as very likely the are still there. This area was subsequently turned into a national park (part of Gateway NP), making collecting a murky prospect. Truthfully, I wouldn’t bay an eye, but be it known. The entire barrier island/spit has been barely developed (by NJ standards mind you) since the 1940’s and huge rambling beach plums abound amidst the collapsing mortar batteries and barracks of the old base. I was even able to track down the rough location some of these selections were made, though I forget where offhand and don’t have that info handy by any means. It’s literally a time capsule for BP genetics. With the exception of outer Cape Cod, most of the other places where selections were made have been long since rendered asphalt, condo, 7-11, etc.
The whole area is only ~7 miles long and well under 1 mile at the widest part. The BP’s are concentrated on the secondary dunes along the northern and eastern tip, FYI. Someone should investigate. Just watch out for the poison ivy trees, (yes, legit freestanding large bush/tree form, the only place I’ve ever seen it) that also inhabit these secondary dunes. I wish I could go back in time and try some of them out. I learned about BP in science class. We had to learn to identify all of the common dune plants. I never had a chance to really sample them, though. I didn’t know any better at the time.
I would also recommend contacting Rutgers University. They are the land grant college for NJ and may have some of these historic varieties somewhere in their collection. There is a professor there doing sustainable ag stuff, working with Physalis (ground cherries, golden berries) He might be someone to talk to.
Thanks much for your suggestions! The Arnold arboretum has an online search which I just checked - and unfortunately I do not see any fruiting varieties mentioned aside from flava (yellow-fruited variety). They appear to also have a living clone of the Graves BP, a round-leafed form which was originally thought to have been a separate species, though based on what I just read, genetic analysis appears to have disproved this theory.
I was in touch with a number of Rutgers contacts back in 2020, none of which panned out, but I just located a “new” lead (an old lead that I never followed-up on) and will see if it has anything to offer regarding locating Rutgers’ “Jersey Gem” BP.
I’ve been to Sandy Hook when I was a kid. I will add it to my list of places to scour if I get the BP prospecting itch in July/Aug this year. Two other locations on my list that I haven’t yet visited: Bombay Hook DE (the shoreline), and Higbee Beach NJ (Cape May), which is reported to be a BP gold mine.
Cool. Yeah, sounds like been down the wormhole a bit and made some headway. I’ve done some preliminary investigations and done some chance collecting when circumstances have allowed.
I’ve also heard there are tons of beach plums around Cape May. In my youth, I never heard of a single person harvesting or making use of BP. They didn’t even register on people’s radars. Funny that it’s such a struggle to track down, propagate, and nurture something that is deemed of essentially no value, yet you have to trespass or run at least slightly afoul of rules in order to even have a good look at them, let alone harvesting plant material. It’s ‘protected’ until someone would rather that be a parking lot than a dune.
There seems to me much more of a (sub)culture of BP harvest and use on the Cape. The bit of asking around I’ve done on visits there have left me with the distinct impression that people are fairly guarded about where and what they pick. Similar to how people react when you ask them where they picked all of those beautiful morels. I get it, but it’s not helpful for improving the quality or distribution of the fruit beyond where it happened to fall and grow. I don’t know that there’s much consideration for fruit size or quality, since it all seems to get made into jelly.
Count me in as a fellow scavenger of BP info and (hopefully someday) quality plant material. Let us know if you find the Ark!
Will do. I am pretty persistent, so I suspect I will get at least something interesting, and hopefully multiple somethings! I don’t have a TON of room, but expect to start a BP hedge this spring with the seedlings I started last year. If I’m able to locate interesting stuff this year, I have several seedling BPs I can graft onto (then protect from the deer! Both their teeth, and their ANTLERS!) to get them established then hopefully multiply them next year and beyond. There are a bunch of selections in the fringes out there - coming out of research programs (Cornell, Rutgers) and held privately, and many (most?) of them as yet unnamed! But they just haven’t quite made it into the trade, or if they have, they fizzled out due to lack of interest I guess.
Agreed on your interpretation of local level of interest. I scavenged BPs on BP Island and in the Broadkill Beach area of DE several years ago. The best plants and harvest came from plants growing right out on the road adjacent to people’s driveways. No one seemed interested in them but me. In south Jersey there’s a market for the jelly, but I don’t think there’s much of an interest in scavenging for the fruit to make your own, like up in MA and Cape Cod. Lots of BP out on Long Island as well (I hear). My brother and his family spend a good deal of tiem out there and he has picked up BP jelly and jam for me at Briermere Farms - it’s quite delicious and tastes like “the real thing” to me anyway.
I am hopeful I’m able to run down several leads in the next week or two. Wish I was able to connect with @JesseS - he was here often several years ago and seemed to have located some decent varieties, but it seems like he’s no longer around.
Thanks @TNHunter. Looks like theirs are seedlings of Ken Asmus’ Oikos “Ecos” variety - I do have one of these with red fruit. It’s OK but not a prolific producer so far - hopefully I’ll get a real crop from it this year to better assess it. I am going nuts at the moment pulling on threads from my BP research doc. Hopefully some of it will pan out…
I am still around, just a new username
I had Hancock, lost it.
Still have Premier, plus around 4 selections from Dr Uva at Rutgers(he sent scionwood which I grafted and have gotten fruit for several years) plus I grew out a bundle of fifty’ecos’ and selected my 3 favorites for fruit. I really like this fruit as it is sort of an insurance policy for plums
in that they are quite reliable, pest and disease resistant plus late blooming and thereby escape early frosts. Every year I save seed to share and grow out in my nursery and I’ve also sent out many bundles of scionwood over the years
Premier has the largest fruit and is pretty freestone. Rutgers selections also have good size and there are both purple and yellow fruited types. My own ecos selections are not quite as large but have great flavor, color(one yellow, one reddish purple one very dark purple/blue)
Hi Trev
They would likely graft to most any plum or cherry plum rootstock. Not likely to be useful cross pollinators to Europlums, but very useful to cross with any American or Asian varieties with same blossom schedule. My cherry plum is now in nearly full bloom, the earliest I have. Ultimately I want to collect some beech plums grafts to add to my trees.
I have grafted BP onto seedling BP, p. Americana, myrobalan with equal success, more vigor on p. am(and suckers) much more
vigor on myro (and lots of shoots below the union)
Excellent - thanks for that stock info. I have seedling BPs to graft onto, but will pickup several myrobalan rootstocks on Saturday at the BYFG (Backyard Fruit Growers - Lancaster PA) grafting meeting. I also have a “Wild Goose” plum from Oikos in my front garden I can graft onto as backup.
I will have to remember to ask for some BP scions next winter…
My new J Plums should be big enough by next spring to graft a few BP scions to… perhaps some cherry plums, and spring satin plumcot… My history with J Plums tells me that most years the BP would be the only fruit I get.
I previously had a pair of J plums… and over 14 years, got one really good crop off both and a couple other very small crops. Anything that blooms that early in TN… is just hardly ever going to make it.
Where did you locate Hancock? I assumed it was no longer extant, lost to the ages. I can’t find it available anywhere, in any case. The Arnoldia article I referenced described it as a sweet flavored yellow variety, good out of hand. Did you have a chance to sample it?
@Petebacher, you said that you would be interested in any beach plum selections. Here’s one that I ran across when I was doing my searches for fruit trees last year.
