In 1990. I planted a Victoria plum tree in my Vancouver garden. It flowers prolifically, looks reasonably healthy, and is pruned most years; however, it has never born a single fruit. An Agriculture Canada publication: "Fruit Tree Cultivars in British Columbia" informs me that it is self-fertile. On the other hand, when I asked a Van Dusen "master gardener" about my non-producing tree some years ago, I was shown a reference which said that it was NOT self-fertile, and a pollination partner was suggested. Now, after a major garden overhaul, I am finally ready to plant a new tree in the hopes of getting the original tree to produce. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the name of the suggested cultivar! So I have two questions: 1. IS or IS NOT Victoria plum self-fertile? 2. If it is not (as I suspect from my experience), could you please suggest a partner for a South Dunbar garden? With appreciation for any suggestions, Margo
Hi MargoM: Being diplomatic is not what you need to read about your Victoria Plum issue. You obviously have a "what is wrong with this picture" dilemma, so I'll try to give some insight. Victoria Plum was developed back in the 1840's and by all rights it is self-fruitful meaning it can produce Plums without a Plum pollinizer. My gut reaction at first was that your Plum is not a Victoria as with most any Fruit Tree there is a percentage of selfing going on, as long as we have some bee activity, in that even a variety of Plum that may require a pollinizer can still produce a few Plums all on its own. It is just that with a pollinizer we are much more apt to have a medium to large crop of fruit instead. With that in mind I have real doubt you have the variety of tree that you felt you had purchased. You can try to locate a pollinizer that may work for this Plum but you will not find that information online as I've checked. The lack of information on Victoria Plum online is rather sparse to say the least and for such an old variety it makes no sense to me. The English growers are growing mainly this Plum only. There does not seem to be any mention of a "helper" Plum that they are using to produce an even larger crop. Here in California, we will not grow this Plum at all and it is not even available for the home gardeners. The feeling is that we have many other varieties that are superior to this Plum. For growing a hardy Plum in which many areas have to look towards, this Plum has been a very good Plum through the years. Your only real recourse if you want to keep this tree is to try a tried and true pollinizer such as a Santa Rosa or perhaps use an English Plum that will flower at near the same time as your Plum does and will also have its fruit harvested or picked near but does not have to be at the same time as when the Victoria Plum ripens. In other words if the Plum Trees flower in April where you are and the fruit ripens for one variety in early August and the other mid August you should be fine. The problem that I have is that I cannot make a case that you have a Victoria Plum in the first place. So if the decision were mine alone I would plant two other Plums, not one and hope that I can get a crop on those two trees. If the tree you have had so long produced a crop then fine but if it does not then the decision is yours to make whether to keep it or not. I will say there are many areas across this country that would love to have a Flowering Plum that did not produce a crop. They do make wonderful accent and focal tress for city, home and landscape plantings. On a further note: Three years ago I bought a replacement Rio Oso Peach from a well known commercial nursery, that is to say a nursery that is selling trees for newly planted Orchards. Our Rio Oso tree is 38 years old and is still one of the best varieties of Peaches around but the commercial growers will not grow it because the Peach is not a good shipper. A fresh market Peach only it seems in the mindset of many, except me. This year the new tree produced a bumper crop of Peaches in mid to late June. No way can it be a Rio Oso as that variety ripens in early August for us. Instead I have a RedHaven and I am not upset about that as I love those Peaches covered over my cereal in the morning! It just goes to show that even the professional, world class nurseries (the "big boys") make some boo-boos with their own labeling of their Fruit Trees. I would suggest you try to find out which varieties of Plums do well in your area and try to plant two new trees. You may get lucky and find a new Plum to help with the pollinizing of the "Victoria" Plum you have but I think the odds of that happening are quite remote. Jim
I wonder if the self-fertile 'Victoria' from England was confused here with the non self-fertile 'Victory' from Ontario, Canada.
Hi the most common reason for lack of fruit on victorias is that the soil is to acid. Apply about 5 ounce per square yard of garden lime now and 2 ounce every 3 months for the next year. afterwards give 5 once once every autum. regards weaver england
Mr Shep I just ordered an "Early Redhaven" peach from a Nursery on Victoria Island, BC. You got Redhaven by mistake when you ordered "Rio Oso" peach. I hope I get "Early Redhaven" when I ordered "Early Redhaven". I had the choice between "Contender", "Redhaven" and "Ealy Redhaven" and I ordered the "Early Redhaven" because of the Zone 5 climate of slow ripening environment and contender not available in Canada yet. This mislabeling of plants is more common for fig trees. One obvious reason is rooting of fig trees from cuttings. There are very few patient and meticulous people (hobyist as well as some professional) who can hardly keep track of 'which cutting is what cultivar', and what plant came from which cutting. There is very high probability of mixup. The same is true when you go to buy (say) tomato seedlings in spring. When you go there early when the trays just arrive, you can trust the identification stickers. After a week or two, some trays will have two stickers, some wil have none and some with the wrong label thrown in. We surely need good luck there that the big beef tomato plant grow like a big beef otherwise we have to wait another year with a winter of -30C tempertures, slush and mud to get to the next spring and summer to find a properly labelled tomato seedling to start over again. Good luck.