Opal Plum Trees
Opal plums are deliciously sweet, bite-sized dessert plums with a great colour range, from sunshine yellow to deep purple, often on the same fruit. They have pale yellow flesh with a signature Greengage flavour. Opal plums arereally early cropping plum trees and in a good year you can look forward to the first fruit being ready at the end of July. Because they are so early, Opal plums mature quite fast and so do better in the South of England; they also reward being planted in a south facing spot - trained against a south facing wall is ideal.
Opal's History and Parentage
Sweden may not seem like an obvious place for fruit trees to be studied and bred. In fact, the climate in the south is perfect for breeding hardy plants that will succeed in Northern Europe and
Opal is just one of the creations of the Horticultural Research Stations in Alnarp and Balsgard, near Sweden's southern tip. It was crossed in the 1920's from two classic plum trees, Early Favourite and Oullins Gage, which are robust English and very tasty French cultivars respectively.
Plum Tree Pollination guide for Opal Prunus domestica
Your Opal plum tree is self-fertile, which means that although a pollination partner such as Marjories Seedling can improve the quality of the harvest, Opal is quite happy to bear a heavy crop all by itself. It is also reassuringly regular in the size of harvest each year.
Plum trees are natives of a warmer climate and need some special consideration to encourage strong growth, resistance to disease and bumper crops. Plums are only pruned in summer, to reduce the risk of silver leaf disease.
Please note that our bushes are on St Julien A rootstocks while our maidens are on Pixy rootstocks which we believe is preferable if you want to train a fan or espalier.
Read our full terms and conditions here.
Delivery:
The basic delivery charge for all orders containing fruit trees of any size (bareroot or pot-grown) is £12.55 + VAT.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
You can choose the delivery week that suits you during checkout and we will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.
Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.
Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.
Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted fruit trees must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.
Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot fruit trees to gardeners and orchard owners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying fruit trees online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.
