Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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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.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- Not yet recorded
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 15–30 ft
- Mature spread
- 15–25 ft
- Plant spacing
- 12–24 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Almond
Prunus amygdalus
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American Basswood
Tilia americana
American Basswood is famous for the bees - mature trees hum audibly for several feet around when they bloom in early summer, giving one of…
Canopy · USDA 3–8
American Beech
Fagus grandifolia
American Beech is a slow, long-lived shade tree that can establish and eventually fruit even under an existing forest canopy, unlike almost…
Canopy · USDA 3–9
American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
American chestnut once carried the sweetest nut of any chestnut species and covered more than 200 million acres of eastern forest, but an…
Canopy · USDA 5–8
American Elm
Ulmus americana
American Elm is a native stream-bank tree that grows into a 60 to 80 foot vase-shaped shade crown and, once mature, becomes one of the…
Canopy · USDA 3–9
American Holly
Ilex opaca
American holly is a slow-growing evergreen understory tree with spiny, leathery leaves and bright red winter berries that at least eighteen…
Canopy · USDA 5–9
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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