Sunflower wrote:

"David J Bockman" wrote in message
...
I would respectfully disagree with your assessment. It's a gorgeous tree!
*And* those 'ornamental' fruits are delicious.

Dave



They're pretty much "thug" trees here and a couple of months of not removing
those suckers will leave a homeowner with a plum thicket. I've seen one of
those thickets 30' wide and that had to be removed with a bobcat. They also
have weak wood and are prone to having limbs snap off in ice storms or high
winds. I personally think their bad qualities outweigh their good ones, but
that's a matter of taste and gardening philosophy as to the
maintainence/benefit ratio. (I don't like trimmed boxwoods either.) For a
purple/red foliaged tree without those problems, I prefer continus for sun
and red leaved Japanese maple cultivars for shade. And for "edible"
ornamentals, I still like my crabapples, from which I make a beautiful jewel
colored jelly. But, different tastes are why none of our gardens look
anything like the others. (Unless that Florida dope Gary Allen designed
them.)

Sunflower
MS 7b

I think perhaps those purple leaf plums which are most problematic are Prunus x
blireana, a truly inferior form that is prone to heavy suckering, in addition to
the whole host of prunus insects and maladies. Prunus cerasifera, which includes
Thundercloud, Newport and Krauter Vesuvius among the common cultivars, are far
superior landscape additions and tend to be not nearly as problematic as the
blireanas, which were more commonly planted 10-20 years ago.

pam - gardengal