'Willpower & sheer idiocy combine in harmony'
Not many, but cherry Regina settles in by delivering her first crop.
Queen of cherries Regina battles back from botched planting job
AS one of my mystery fruit trees, cherry Regina got plonked in a tub and forgotten about. Even so, she flowered, but did not bear fruit until 2015.
There's a difference of opinion as to whether she is self-fertile, or needs a pollinator. She'd better be the first.
She's very hardy, a sweet black German cherry, grown commercially, even in Norway, and has lovely spring blossom. From July to August, the tree produces firm red fruits.
"I'll put her in one the raised beds," I thought. As ever, I wouldn't wait for an extra pair of hands and decided to do the job myself.
I got the tree out of the tub, but digging the hole proved a little more difficult.
A spit below soil level, I hit yellow clay and rubble.
This was too shallow for the rootball, so she ended up in a little castle, fashioned out of spare bricks to bring the soil level up to the right height.
Luckily for her, she got moved again when the greenhouse came along, into a double depth raised bed with the raspberries.
Seems she's settled in nicely - and the few red cherries we got were delicious.
Growing & pruning plums & cherries
Japanese blood plum Lizzie weighed down
LIZZIE, a Japanese, or blood plum that arrived in a bumper bundle of mystery fruit trees, is a constant source of delight.
She blooms as early as the end of January and shows good frost resistance. Luckily, the tree doesn't get the sun in winter until lunchtime - I wouldn't risk planting one in an open situation facing east.
This year, her branches are weighed down with fruit and they've been thinned by half.
There also seems to be not much information about the variety.
One says it's a new Asian plum (Prunus salicina, compared to the more usual European plum, Prunus domestica) that has been bred in America; another that it was bred in East Anglia.
Its medium-sized fruit are described as 'remarkably sweet and juicy - they're almost candy-like and unlike any other plum we know, with blood-red flesh'.
The tree is self-fertile. The fully-grown 4m tree on a St Julien rootstock has an upright to rounded shape.
Bumper crop - Lizzie in early August.
From top, in early August; one day's pickings; blossom in April.
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Cherry Regina in blossom last May.
YOU don't prune plums or cherries in winter, to avoid silver leaf disease. Any pruning that needs doing is carried out in early spring or midsummer. The bush is the most popular method of training, creating an open-centred tree with a clear stem of 75cm - that's what I'm aiming for. On established trees, rub out any buds developing on the lower trunk and carefully pull off suckers.
Pruning is mostly limited to removing crossing, weak, vertical and diseased material. If the tree is still crowded, more thinning can be done in July.
European plums tend to have a more upright habit and form a larger tree. Fruit is borne mainly on semi-permanent spurs but also on the previous season’s growth.
Japanese plums have a more spreading habit and flower both on the previous season's growth and on semi-permanent spurs from three-year-old wood.
Most plums are naturally goblet shaped, so formative pruning consists of removing any inward growing branches from the centre.
Pruning after harvest consists of reducing upright growths to outward growing laterals and reducing lateral growth to promote spur formation.
Pruning plums...
... pruning cherries
IN the first spring after planting, choose three or four well-spaced branches on a clear trunk of at least 75cm (29"), and shorten them by two thirds.
Remove the central stem to just above the highest of the selected branches. Remove any laterals below the selected branches.
The following spring, select three or four sub laterals on each branch and shorten these by half to create an open framework.
In future years, cherries will require only occasional pruning to remove damaged, badly placed or diseased wood in the summer.