Beach Plum

Invasive. Beware.
My soil is poor, and the site is dry, with brutal full sun. Likely all the worse in good soil.
This pla...Read Morent supposedly "suckers". As the tree matures, the suckering roots go out approx. 12 feet in radiating direction, and as suckering plants do, snap when you try to pull them out. I'm not into tightly controlled formal gardens, but this plant is as bad as bamboo, Japanese knotweed, etc.

I have seen some wild along the beach dunes in southern Delaware and some planted in the town of Lewes, DE. It is native from Maine down ...Read Moreto Virginia along the East Coast, growing in sandy, acid soils. It is similar to the American Plum that has a much larger range in eastern North America, but Beach Plum is a smaller shrub with shiny, thicker leaves and smaller purple fruit of 1/2 to 3/4 inch borne in clusters. There are some cultivars of this species grown for the delicious plums that ripen in August.

The two beach plums I have had in my backyard for about five years are not trouble free and do not produce any fruit.

Onc...Read Moree again this year I am defending them from aphids. Last year there was one little white flower, and no fruit, this year no flowers. One is abut four feet tall and four feet around, the other is about three and a half feet tall and two feet around, and seems to have more ants and aphids than the other one.

They are supposed to be self fertile. they have never given even one of the olive size fruits most people find disapointing-I would settle for that.

Fruits are edible and dark purple. Aminals love them too. Shrub-like habit. Flowers appear in May and are mildly fragrant. Leaves ca...Read Moren be used as a yellow dye. Drought tolerant.