The color of my various fruit often don’t match web pictures, often don’t match the previous year.
I went to look at my mirabelles, and seems both varieties may be mostly without speckles or blush this year.
I am surprise mirabelles are not for fresh eating. It is very sweet. Why not?
@murky- I did not say mirabelles have to have blush or speckle. Many of mine don’t, esp. ones hiding under leaves or don’t get enough sun.
Everything I’ve read talks of their sweetness. There is plenty of chatter about plums being sweet but with no other flavor to compliment it.
Some are happy with sweet fruit. Some like a mix of sweet and tart. Some like a more complex flavor profile.
Mirabelles are famous for their use in cooking and jams where the fruit alone is not what you are eating, so I’d think while some enjoy fresh eating, it has traditionally been used otherwise for it’s sugar content.
Says the guy who’s never held or eaten a. Mirabelle plum and knows how to use the internet.
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Here is the line up.
Left to right.
French Improved, Reine des Mirabelles and Mirabelle, Parfume de Septembre.
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I just ordered a Jefferson plum from ToA, is this tree E plum?
Parfume de Septembre is a mirabelle so I list its full name.
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Of course I read it properly now. 
Whether it fruits for me later or not, I planted Parfume de September, Geneva (I know, a US hybrid), and a purple gage together.
I don’t know the parentage of the purple gage. It’s likely another US hybrid.
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Here’s what Orange Pippin website says.
Gage - Jefferson - tasting notes, identification, reviews.
In general, people think of Jefferson as a Euro plum. You decide 
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I think it will be challenging for you to keep them prune once they get going. Growing them closely like that work well in a dry climate. In humid east, diseases will be a concern.
I think Geneva could cross pollinate with Parfume.
My trees are multi grafted so I cannot tell which pollinate which.
I’m giving it a shot. They will be pruned to be open in the middle so 120° growth each away from center.
Good news I’ll have scion to play with if they do well for the future. I can graft individual trees or a combo.
I already have planned on pruning the hell out of them to keep them manageable. I just don’t know how they will do overall. If they can survive a month of temperatures 10 degrees above normal and rainfall way less than 50% of average like they are going thru this summer, I’ll have some hope.
Thanks, I like a bit of sharpness in the description.
I thought French Prune is purple/dark blue in color, did it not fully develop its color for you this year?
Yes, they turn purple’sh but not solid purple like Castleton. They are prune to crack. Many have cracked and ripened sooner.
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Tippy, traditions are very strong here. I will slice them and add them to a salad. Mirabelles here are used for the following: tarts, a clafouti cake, jam and eau de vie. Thats it.
They eat larger plums uncooked. Most plums are turned into tarts, but not Japanese plums. Japanese plums are eaten fresh.
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The Alsatian Quetch is deep purple. mamuang is showing French Improved, that plum tends to be dark reddish.
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I have a rootstock question. What rootstocks do you have for your European Prune plums and Gage types? Near here was a commercial prune area. I understand that myrobalan was the primary rootstock. No prune orchards remain - now mostly wine grapes. Many cherry plums (Prunus ceracifera) now grow wild in the area as feral trees, probably planted by birds.
However, I understand that the gages and mirabelles don’t do well on myrobalan which is my experience. I have lost many trees on both Myro 29C and myrobalan seedling rootstocks not realizing that the rootstock could be the problem. I have a 20+year old trees of Purple Gage on St. Julian A seedling and a golden colored gage type with a pink blush on Brompton seedling. The latter is getting ripe now and I’ll post photos to see if anyone has ideas as to the identity. It was found in a town about 70miles north of here.
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Does anyone grow Seneca. I tasted one a couple of weeks ago and think it’s the best I ever tasted in its season, not just because of that one taste, but memories of how it was when I used to grow it. I gave up on it because I used to plant it with Long John and apparently they don’t cross pollinate well. At one site where neither was producing I grafted other varieties to the trees and they’ve done well ever since, but I never grew it in my own orchard.
That will change next season- I plan to graft it onto a tree in my orchard.
The plum seems to share the best characteristics of a prune plum and a gage and is exceptionally large and rich for such an early E. plum. .
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I am glad to hear that @alan. I am growing a Seneca, but it is not in production just yet. Yesterday I bud grafted several different Euro varieties to my Seneca tree to aid with pollination. After reading your glowing recommendation, I’ll be sure to add some Seneca grafts to some of my other plum trees as well.
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@mayhaw9999 I have 2-3 different gages on a satsuma rootstock(actually m2624 is main rootstock with satsuma interstem for the gages). They are all growing vigorously so far and fruited within 2 years after grafting.
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