North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

I just had some fresh plums, picked this afternoon here in Oregon.  The funny thing is that most people have them, but never grow them.
I'm talking about Prunus insititia, the species that gave us the St. Julian plum rootstocks.  Buy a commercially produced plum and odds are very good the rootstock is St. Julian, but few ever let the rootstock produce fruit.
I have a "White Bullace" that produces small, somewhat astringent plums that look very much like a ripe green gage plum, rather yellowish white, with a blush on them.  They are slightly astringent, but very well flavored and they hang a very long time on the tree.  Mine have been ripe for probably two months, but they are still good and several limbs are still covered solid with them.  
Used mostly for jam and preserves in Europe, they are a very pleasant late season fruit for fresh eating, when the astringency has mostly disappeared, and  well worth growing.  And if you get tired of them, you can use them for rootstock.
I've eaten the fruit of St. Julian and it's similar, but doesn't hang like this sort of late season variety.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.