Purple-leaf plum trees, also called cherry plum trees or flowering plum trees, can add interest to your yard or garden with their dark red to purple foliage and abundance of white to light pink spring blossoms. Purple-leaf plums are medium-sized, deciduous trees primarily used for ornamental purposes.
What does a purple leaf plum look like?
The purple leaf plum ‘Atropurpurea’ is an attractive ornamental tree with showy white flowers, reddish-purple leaves, and reddish-brown fruit. The flowering cherry plum tree has a rounded vase-shaped crown consisting of ovate leaves with toothed margins. This small to medium-sized tree grows 15 to 25 ft.
Can you eat a purple leaf plum?
Fruit from ornamentals, such as crabapples and purple-leaved plums, are edible. However, the eating quality of some ornamental fruit is rather poor. These trees were selected for their ornamental characteristics rather than the eating quality of their fruit.
How do you identify a plum leaf?
Plum is a small broadleaf, deciduous tree or sometimes a shrub, with dark-brown bark. The branches grow straight and twigs are often spiny in wild plants. Look out for: the leaf stem which is hairy, often with a pair of yellow-green coloured glands.
Do purple plum trees lose their leaves?
Purple Leaf Plum Tree Characteristics
The plum tree classifies as a medium-sized, deciduous tree, meaning it drops its leaves at the end of the growing season.
Which plum tree has purple leaves?
Purpleleaf PlumPrunus cerasifera
Purpleleaf PlumPrunus cerasifera. The Purpleleaf Plum should be grown in full sun on well-drained, acid soil to bring out the richest leaf color. It tolerates slightly alkaline soil. Tolerant of moderate heat and drought, it often succumbs to borers on poor, compacted soil.
What color leaves do plum trees have?
It’s a relatively small tree with a rounded growth habit. It produces fragrant, five-petaled pale pink to white flowers in the spring that are roughly an inch across, which then turn to small fruits. The elliptical leaves can range in color from purple to green.
Are purple leaf plum trees toxic to dogs?
Plum Trees Pose a Bigger Risk Than the Fruit
The ASPCA’s database of toxic plants lists plum trees as toxic to dogs, cats, and horses because of the cyanide content. Again, the main risk comes from the stem, leaves, and roots of the tree, and the pit of the fruit.
Are purple leaf plum trees messy?
Purple Leaf Plum Care
This tree also benefits from regular feeding and pruning. It can be a messy tree if fruit forms in spring. It’s best to plant this tree away from walkways and other sites in your yard that get a lot of foot traffic, so you are not walking on the fruit.
Are plum tree leaves poisonous?
All parts of the plum plant contain hydrogen cyanide, including the leaves, stem, roots, and the plum pit.
How do you tell if a tree is a plum tree?
The shape of the flower buds will help you tell the difference. Plum trees have round buds, cherry tree buds are oval. If each bud is separately attached to the tree by a short thin stem, it’s a plum tree. If small clusters of blossoms grow from each flower bud, it’s a cherry tree.
How do you tell the difference between a plum tree and a cherry blossom?
Cherry tree
- Cherry blossoms have a small split at the end of each petals.
- The bark of the cherry tree often have small horizontal lines on it.
- More than one cherry will come out of a cherry bud.
- The leaves of cherry trees are green and unfolding.
- Plum blossoms don’t have any split at the end of the petals.
How much water does a purple leaf plum tree need?
Avoid wetting the trunk. Depending on rain, your new tree may not need much irrigation until the weather is warm and new growth is several inches long. In a moderate summer, your first-year tree is likely to need 5 to 10 gallons a week, applied every 1 to 2 weeks. You want to wet the soil to a depth of 18 to 24 inches.
Do plum trees have a lifespan?
Plum | 10-25 years*
What plum tree has red leaves?
Purple-leaf plum trees, also called cherry plum trees or flowering plum trees, can add interest to your yard or garden with their dark red to purple foliage and abundance of white to light pink spring blossoms.
How long does it take for a plum tree to bear fruit?
three to six years
Plum trees typically begin to bear fruit when they are three to six years of age. Fruit develops earlier in some varieties and you even see baby plums begin to appear earlier in age.
How do you prune a purple leaf plum tree?
Pruning Plum Leaf Sand Cherry
Prune the oldest stems first, removing at least one-third of growth down to within a few inches (8 cm.) from the base. Additionally, cut damaged or dead growth at the base of the shrub. The branches will be sturdy, so be sure your cutting tool is sharp.
What fruit tree has maroon leaves?
the garden: The Ubiquitous Burgundy Tree | Purple leaf plum tree, Purple plum tree, Flowering plum tree.
What trees have dark purple leaves?
- 01 of 09. Barberries (Berberis thunbergii)
- 02 of 09. Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica)
- 03 of 09. Crabapples (Malus sp.)
- 04 of 09. Elderberries.
- 05 of 09. Japanese Maples.
- 06 of 09. Purple Leaf Plum (Prunus cerasifera)
- 07 of 09. Purple Leaf Sand Cherry (Prunus X cistena)
- 08 of 09. Purple Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)
What happens if a dog eats a plum?
Since plum fruit itself is safe for dogs, there is no need to induce vomiting. If your dog has eaten a whole plum including the pit, it is unlikely that it has consumed high enough quantities of cyanide to cause a problem. It may experience stomach upset.
Are purple leaf plum trees deciduous?
The purple leaf plum or cherry plum is a medium-sized, ornamental, deciduous tree that is typically short-lived.