North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] cherry plums

The plumcot that produced the seed was very likely one of Luther Burbank's creations.  I was working at a nursery at the time and a fellow brought in fruit that looked a lot like a fuzzless apricot.  Flavor was distinctly apricot, though not as strong.  He said the tree was likely very old as a neighbor lady in her 70's spoke of playing under the tree as a child.  That would have put the tree as having been planted in the time of 1910 to 1920, when the only plumcots were from Burbank.   Said it never missed, either. Stupidly, I didn't get his address as he said he was in the files there, but I could never find him.  So I planted the seed in hopes of getting something back of decent quality.  Must have been pollinated by a red leaf plum as some of the seedlings have red leaves and red fruit.  A couple have a hint of apricot flavor, but not much.  A couple of the red leaf types are fairly good as ornamentals with edible fruit, but that's about all.  Some have never fruited and have odd appearances that show there definitely was apricot in the ancestry.  One non bearing type is so dwarf it has stayed about 4 feet tall.  That would be expected in an interspecific cross.
-Lon Rombough
> What kind of fruit did the other seedlings produce?  Did the seeds come
> from one of Zaiger's plumcots?
> -Mark Lee