Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Maclaren
Grrk. There really isn't any boundary between damsons and plums.
Well, I have Merryweather and Farleigh, too, and they are both about
the same size - both bantam's egg sized - so there is clearly a great
deal of variation in what is called Farleigh.
Yours sounds like a throwback; the smallest Prunus domestica that I
know of is mirabelle, and they are still larger than sloes and about
as big as cherries. Most damsons are bantam's egg sized.
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Reading what you say and doing a bit more research, I really wonder whether I have what I am supposed to have.
I did think true damsons were a separate species, but I see that "P institia" is more correctly described as P domestica subsp institia.
I thought I had chosen my sweet plum so that it should be able to be pollinated by my damson. Checking back, I see that they should have exactly the same flowering date (nursery records both flower on average on 23 April). My experience with other fruit is that things vary their flowering out of synch with other varieties, but things said to flower at about the same time ought to do so in some years. In practice the damson has flowered well before the sweet plum. So I'm beginning to wonder if I do have some kind of wild throwback as you say.
There are wild damsons quite common in the hedgerows in the area, but they have a sufficient hint of sloe-like bitterness that I can't use them for cooking (whatever someone said about sloe jam, too bitter for me). But this one in my garden is not bitter, nor as vigorous as the hedgerow damsons.