North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

Caren, the small juicy yellow plums flushed with orange red from Ontario 
would be Early Golden, a chance seedling from Fonthill (high sandy fruit 
growing area in the central Niagara Peninsula) found in 1946. It's 
suspected to be a complex cross of Japanese plum and one or two others, 
probably not including P. domestica or P. insititia. The tree is large 
and vigourous. I would not bet on it surviving zone 4, or 5 for that matter.

Many nurseries in many places are lax about naming, and generally don't 
care much. Many don't seem to feel any ethical obligation to retail 
customers. I have known wholesale nurseries very careless about trueness 
to name.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



Caren Kirk wrote:
> Claude and Doug,
>
> I know sometimes nurseries are very lax about naming.  Here around the 
> Montreal region, there are many nurseries selling a "Mirabelle" plum, the 
> cultivar itself not being specified. Most of the nurseries list it as Ag Can 
> Z4, so suitable for my region.
>
> In late summer we have a lot of farmer's markets and supermarkets selling 
> baskets of small juicy yellow plums flushed with orange red from Ontario.  I 
> always assumed they are a Mirabelle type, or they could be Reine Claudes I 
> suppose. Fully ripe, I find them a particularly tasty treat. Hopefully my 
> tree will produce similar fruit.
>
> I am a definite newbie but interested in learning. So thanks for the 
> interesting discussion.
>
> Caren
> St. Jerome, QC

[snip]