There are some 'accidental' fruits in my garden, which I'd like to identify.

I have eaten (and stewed) quite a few without ill-effect and they are
ripe now. They are yellow, about 1.8 cm in diameter and have a central
stone, measuring around 1cm.

The flesh is sweet and tastes just like a plum, the skin is rather sour.

The branches of the tree which bears them have long (2-3cm) sharp
spikes/thorns.

They're obviously a prunus, I think. Are they mirabelles? Googling so
far has not shown me the rest of the plant. The spikes are vicious...

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

In message , Helen Deborah
Vecht writes
There are some 'accidental' fruits in my garden, which I'd like to identify.

I have eaten (and stewed) quite a few without ill-effect and they are
ripe now. They are yellow, about 1.8 cm in diameter and have a central
stone, measuring around 1cm.

The flesh is sweet and tastes just like a plum, the skin is rather sour.

The branches of the tree which bears them have long (2-3cm) sharp
spikes/thorns.

They're obviously a prunus, I think. Are they mirabelles? Googling so
far has not shown me the rest of the plant. The spikes are vicious...


Prunus cerasifera, cherry plum, or mirabelle if French.

They're described with red or yellow fruit and spikes - this website
sells them for hedging:
http://buckingham-nurseries.co.uk/ac...uct_10262.html

IME the fruit can be bright red, yellow or deep purple all in a short
length of old field hedge. Their armament varies too; I suspect a lot
of the wild plants are hybrids and I think you're unlucky to have such
serious spines on yours.

They make first-rate pies but for jam you really want bullaces.

--
Sue ]

"Helen Deborah Vecht" wrote
There are some 'accidental' fruits in my garden, which I'd like to
identify.

I have eaten (and stewed) quite a few without ill-effect and they are
ripe now. They are yellow, about 1.8 cm in diameter and have a central
stone, measuring around 1cm.

The flesh is sweet and tastes just like a plum, the skin is rather
sour.

The branches of the tree which bears them have long (2-3cm) sharp
spikes/thorns.

They're obviously a prunus, I think. Are they mirabelles? Googling so
far has not shown me the rest of the plant. The spikes are vicious...

Sounds like bullace.
http://www.brickfieldspark.org/data/bullace.htm

--
Sue

MadCow typed

They make first-rate pies but for jam you really want bullaces.

Thanks :-)

I think I'll just throw them in the jam pan with my Victoria Plum glut.
My Vic plum fruited very heavily last year. This year, it's *much*
heavier, with the branches breaking under the weight. The fruit are
still developing on the broken branch, which we'll attend to after the
harvest.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

"Sue" wrote in message
reenews.net...

"Helen Deborah Vecht" wrote
There are some 'accidental' fruits in my garden, which I'd like to
identify.

I have eaten (and stewed) quite a few without ill-effect and they are
ripe now. They are yellow, about 1.8 cm in diameter and have a central
stone, measuring around 1cm.

The flesh is sweet and tastes just like a plum, the skin is rather
sour.

The branches of the tree which bears them have long (2-3cm) sharp
spikes/thorns.

They're obviously a prunus, I think. Are they mirabelles? Googling so
far has not shown me the rest of the plant. The spikes are vicious...

Sounds like bullace.
http://www.brickfieldspark.org/data/bullace.htm

--
Sue

Bullace are purple and the trees have no thorns

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

The message
from "Charlie Pridham" contains these words:

"Sue" wrote in message
reenews.net...

big snip

Sounds like bullace.


Bullace are purple and the trees have no thorns

Well my childhood memories of what we called Bullace was
like the picture on the above, ie greenish yellow flushed with
pink and better eaten after a slight frost. Can't remember about
the thorns but think there were a few.

However when I 'googled' for Bullace, after reading another
thread in urg, the pictures showed them as purple!

Where are you Rusty??? ... who ages ago told me there were
quite a few bullace trees in Norfolk.

BTW Helen whatever they are they sound rather nice - lucky you.

Jennifer in Bristol - totally confused!

Jennifer Sparkes typed

Well my childhood memories of what we called Bullace was
like the picture on the above, ie greenish yellow flushed with
pink and better eaten after a slight frost. Can't remember about
the thorns but think there were a few.

However when I 'googled' for Bullace, after reading another
thread in urg, the pictures showed them as purple!

Where are you Rusty??? ... who ages ago told me there were
quite a few bullace trees in Norfolk.

BTW Helen whatever they are they sound rather nice - lucky you.

Jennifer in Bristol - totally confused!

Rusty is still too short of reddies to get back with us. I'll send him a
text message.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

Have a look at:-

http://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/sea...x?selection=12

Jennifer

In message , Jennifer Sparkes
writes

Sounds like bullace.


Bullace are purple and the trees have no thorns

Well my childhood memories of what we called Bullace was
like the picture on the above, ie greenish yellow flushed with
pink and better eaten after a slight frost. Can't remember about
the thorns but think there were a few.


In Sussex the local bullaces were yellow-flushed-red, and we bought a
green-flushed-red one from a nursery (its fruit weren't as tasty but it
cropped more reliably).
Ours were about as spiny as a damson, ie they'd scratch you but not stab
you.

I went out today and picked up some feral plums off a roadside:

Bush 1 had sloe-like small rugose leaves (but only weak spines) and
yellow fruit the size of sloes. They were still hard.
Bush 2 had larger flatter leaves and beautiful deep-yellow fruit with a
slight blush, the size of cherry plums. They'd almost all fallen.
Bush 3 had bright red fruit with a slight bloom, well into falling.
Bush 4 had plain light yellow fruit the size and shape of damsons, which
had fallen so thickly the ground was yellow with them.
Bush 5 had deep yellow fruit with a marked blush but rather angular with
a slight keel at the bottom end...

I ran out of time without finding two the same. I'll stew my samples
and see if they taste any different. I'm tempted to go back at sloe
time and try some of the yellow sloes in brandy, just as a curiosity.

--
Sue ]

"MadCow" wrote in message
news
In message , Jennifer Sparkes
writes

Sounds like bullace.


Bullace are purple and the trees have no thorns

Well my childhood memories of what we called Bullace was
like the picture on the above, ie greenish yellow flushed with
pink and better eaten after a slight frost. Can't remember about
the thorns but think there were a few.


In Sussex the local bullaces were yellow-flushed-red, and we bought a
green-flushed-red one from a nursery (its fruit weren't as tasty but it
cropped more reliably).
Ours were about as spiny as a damson, ie they'd scratch you but not stab
you.

I went out today and picked up some feral plums off a roadside:

Bush 1 had sloe-like small rugose leaves (but only weak spines) and
yellow fruit the size of sloes. They were still hard.
Bush 2 had larger flatter leaves and beautiful deep-yellow fruit with a
slight blush, the size of cherry plums. They'd almost all fallen.
Bush 3 had bright red fruit with a slight bloom, well into falling.
Bush 4 had plain light yellow fruit the size and shape of damsons, which
had fallen so thickly the ground was yellow with them.
Bush 5 had deep yellow fruit with a marked blush but rather angular with
a slight keel at the bottom end...

I ran out of time without finding two the same. I'll stew my samples
and see if they taste any different. I'm tempted to go back at sloe
time and try some of the yellow sloes in brandy, just as a curiosity.

--
Sue ]

Have been to the site Jennifer posted and was amazed at the huge range of
Bullace (I assumed they were a wild plant) looks like they have been
cultivated in hedgerows for ever. So as she said in an email "Everyone is
right" !!

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)

"Jennifer Sparkes" wrote
from "Charlie Pridham" :
"Sue" wrote
big snip

Sounds like bullace.

Bullace are purple and the trees have no thorns

Well my childhood memories of what we called Bullace was
like the picture on the above, ie greenish yellow flushed with
pink and better eaten after a slight frost. Can't remember about
the thorns but think there were a few.

However when I 'googled' for Bullace, after reading another
thread in urg, the pictures showed them as purple!

Where are you Rusty??? ... who ages ago told me there were
quite a few bullace trees in Norfolk.

I am in Norfolk, and yes there are, or were. The wild plum type shrubs
or trees in hedgerows that I've always known as bullace are a bit
thorny, have yellowish fruit, and look like the ones in the link I
included. http://www.brickfieldspark.org/data/bullace.htm

Purple ones I'd call damsons.

Perhaps it's another regional variation on common naming.

--
Sue

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...

Sounds like bullace.
http://www.brickfieldspark.org/data/bullace.htm

--
Sue

Bullace are purple and the trees have no thorns

I would agree that they're purple but there are a few thorns on the older
wood on mine - long spines.

But it's such a promiscuous plant that I suspect any colour would be
possible - and any spine.

Mary