Plant · P-404

Cherry Plum

Prunus cerasifera

Cherry Plum flowers on bare wood in very early spring, ahead of most other fruit trees, making it one of the first substantial nectar sources of the year for bees - though that same early bloom is a standing risk, since a late frost after a warm spell can take the flowers and the whole year's crop with them. The fruit, about 30 mm across with one large seed, is eaten raw or cooked into pies, tarts and jam. It self-sows readily from bird-dropped seed and volunteers well away from the parent tree, so the seedlings are worth taking as rootstock rather than fought - most of what's sold in nurseries is actually a purple-leaved ornamental cultivar, so fruiting stock has to be sought out deliberately.