Plum - 'Mount Royal' Plum Tree
Considered by many to be the best all-around plum for consistent crops, fruit quality and yield in tougher climate regions. Heirloom blue, European type that ripens in early to mid-Septmeber, Mount Royal Plum has dark green foliage throughout the season with leaves that turn yellow in fall. An advantage of this cultivar is that it is self- pollinating with white, showy, fragrant blooms that emerge in the spring. Blue drupes are ripe in August and are sweet and tender. They can be eaten fresh, dried, or in baked goods. This tree would fit perfectly as part of an edible landscape, orchard, under power lines, and would even make an ideal stand-alone specimen tree due to a wide opening canopy. It is extremely cold hardy.
This cold-hardy variety is comfortable at Zone 4-7. It is a smaller tree, reaching a mature height of 10 to 12 ft and width of 8 to 10 ft. Mount Royal plum needs full sun and even soil moisture. It is tolerant of inner-city environments, soil type, and most pH levels. The fruit is loved by both humans and wildlife, but can be messy if it is not harvested. As for all fruit bearing trees, maintenance is needed for this tree; pruning should be done in late winter after an extreme cold. It's expected average age is 40 years in ideal conditions. For general care and maintenance of plum trees, watch for plum aphids, caterpillars, fruit tree red spider mite, brown scale, plum moth, bullfinches, silver leaf, bacterial canker, and brown rot.