Opal Plum Trees

Prunus domestica Opal Plum Trees

Opal produces bite-sized dessert plums that are deliciously sweet and that unusually have 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. They are extremely early cropping 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.

Please note: The normal versions of this tree are only sold bareroot and delivered in winter (Nov-March). The mini patio version is pot grown and delivered year round.
Browse our range of plum trees, other mini patio trees, or all our fruit trees.

Features:

• Sold as a bareroot normal tree, or a potted Mini Patio tree.
• Self-fertile
• Early cropper, harvest in late July to early August
• Eating, sweet greengage flavour
• Bareroot delivery: Nov-March
• Pot grown delivery (Mini patio form only): Year round
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Plum Tree Pollination guide for Opal

Your tree is self-fertile, which means that although a pollination partner such as Marjories Seedling can improve the quality of the harvest, it 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.

All our plum trees are on St Julien A rootstocks, including the mini patio version, known as Wonder Trees, which use a special, high graft to control their vigour.

Did You Know? 

Sweden's climate (in the south), is perfect for breeding hardy plants that will succeed in Northern Europe. Opal is one of many superb 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 Golden Gage, which are robust English and very tasty French cultivars respectively.