In article ,
Tim Perry writes:
| Bob Hobden;812896 Wrote:
|
| What no little Mirabelles? (make amazing jam)
| No Greengage either. (much nicer to eat than plums)
|
| Bob, to answer your question, we have wild cherry/plums, rather
| like a Shuma, they grow everywhere around here, along every
| hedgerow, so I did not trouble to plant any. Most locals ignore
| them, but we pick loads every year. I use them in much the same
| way as you do to make sloe gin, only I prefer Polish spirit to gin.

Mirabelles are not cherry-plums, still less are greengages. Both
are Prunus domestica; cherry-plums are P. cerasifera. And Bob's
remark about greengages doesn't apply to either.

| Back to the Loquat issue, they are said to be hardy down to -15 C,
| and the flowers to -7 C, so there should be more people growing
| them successfully, but they are only partially self-fertile and would
| benefit from another grown close by. Perhaps this is why so few
| growers get fruit.

They are said to be, but it's not that simple. They are very hardy,
but are often cut back by cold winds (even ones rather warmer than
-15 Celcius) and need a reasonable amount of heat and sun to flower
and fruit. I don't know the details of the latter.

You used to see the former around Cambridge very clearly, because
there were a fair number of them in the city that were truncated
every winter as they got above the garden walls. That doesn't
happen in the current very mild winters.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.