Hello, I live in the Netherlands and I have a small collection with stone fruit. Beside some cultivars of European plums (Prunus domestica), I have also a Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) tree. It is very uncommon to grow Japanese plums in the Netherlands. This means that is is nearly impossible to get a reliable answer on the question in this message from somebody in the Netherlands. I bought the tree two years ago in Germany. On the tag was the name 'Santa Rosa'. In 2007 the tree had some fruit on it. The fruits looked like the ones on pictures I saw from 'Santa Rosa' on the web. There is only one difference: the flesh is completely red. In several descriptions of 'Santa Rosa' I've been reading that the flesh should be yellow/amber ??!? Does anybody know if my tree is a 'Santa Rosa' or any other variety ? (wich ?) By the way: the fruits ripen early (one to two weeks earlier than the earlies European plum cultivars). Look at the pictures included in this message. Kind regards, Marcel Joosten - the Netherlands.
There are many kinds. If yours doesn't match 'Santa Rosa' then you simply got sold the wrong one - not an especially rare happening. A nearby university library may have useful references.
It is possible that the flesh colour may be effected by climate and soil minerals. I have read abour Santa Rosa with red flesh as well as yellow flesh with redness near the stone only. I have read about it being round shape as well as oval shape. Yours is a beautiful tree and beautiful fruit whether it is Santa Rosa or not. Just enjoy it. If you were in Canada I would have asked for a dormant cutting that I can graft on my Brookred plum which I planted last summer (though I have never done grafting before).
Hello RonB and Ottawa-Zone5, Thank you very much for your replies. I understand that there are different kinds of 'Santa Rosa', maybe through environmental causes (soil, climate) or maybe for genetical reasons (mutations) ? It is an old cultivar, thus making many mutations likely. I can visit the library of the Wageningen agricultural University, wich is nearby for me. This is a good suggetion, however: I will not expect very much of information about Japanese plums, because it's not a commercial crop in the Netherlands. The reason why Japanese plums are not commercially grown (even not in hobby-gardens like mine) is that they flower very early in the season (even earlier than apricots, wich are also not commercially grown for the same reason). The early flowering buds will freese in most of the years. This year they are even EXTREMELY early. The flower buds are already running on this moment, while the European plums are still in dormancy. Kind regards, Marcel Joosten.
Marcel: The earliness of the blossom means the tree has low chilling requirements, which is another sign that it is indeed a Santa Rosa plum. Santa Rosa has been the standard for years here in Southern California because it is reliable in our warm climate. You may not get much fruit off of it because of frost; I might suggest a European plum like Greengage with higher chilling requirements.
