Some of you have heard a lot of things about Green Gage plum and may be wondering how it actually tastes but have never had the opportunity to try it. I will give my review and attempt to write a very detailed description of the flavor. (I just picked two plums from my trees to taste) Reine Claude Doree (sought after variety of Green Gage) Smelling the outside of the fruit, the aroma is very reminiscent of the intense fragrance of yellow color cherry plums (Myrobalan), some mild soft "apricot" smell, though with some slight "plum texture" as well. The initial impression from the flavor was "most delightful flavor". The type of flavor was not extremely unique, but very good. It was kind of Mirabelle plum like (I mean in terms of having a little apricot flavor), a little bit of a lovely Pluot flavor as well. The flavor is sort of similar to Japanese plums ordinarily found at a supermarket, and almost a little similar to Shiro plums (yellow color) too. Hints of honeydew melon and green watermelon rind. "delectable" and fully ripe flavor, somewhat delicate flavor but not too weak. The fruit size was a little bit smaller than the other Green Gage variety. standard Green Gage (I'm assuming the variety is 'Verte', but I'm not sure) The fruit size was significantly bigger than the Reine Claude Doree, but might not have been fully ripe. Even despite that, I could tell that it was a lower quality tasting plum, compared to the other one. Still not bad, but kind of a not fully ripe flavor, very slightly "starchy" (not fully converted to sugars yet), or very slightly "tannic" (astringent). Taste was like a normal supermarket plum but a bit more on the "green" tasting side, maybe a hint of grass and green melon. I still think this plum could have breeding potential if crossed with something else that is sweeter and more ripe. The trees are very young and this is the first year they have produced any fruit. The Reine Claude Doree fruit was also a paler color, like a very pale green, almost as if it seemed to be turning white, whereas the the standard Green Gage was a beautiful green color. Edit, an update: I just tasted a standard green gage fruit from the tree again, 6 days later, after it had the chance to become more ripe. Here is my review. smelling the skin, it has some exquisite plum aroma, moderately better than a supermarket plum. flavor of pluot and a little bit of nectarine. very slight grass flavor. besides from and in addition to that, there's something very "green" about the aroma (I could only compare to maybe Japanese ume plum, or green wine grape flavor).

Fellenberg, I believe, is considered similar to Italian, but as I said, I never have grown it. It tends to be rated a moderate cropper. I consider Italian here less than a moderate bearer so I'm guessing Fellenberg would likely be same. There's a lot of tricks I use to accelerate bearing so I'm not sure if Fellenberg actually can't be speeded up significantly. I consider Castleton a very flavorful prune plum but what makes it stand out is its reliability- it tends to set fruit in clusters almost like grapes. Some years other plums set little or no fruit but Castleton always seems to have a crop at all sites. It is also a natural semi-dwarf with a wonderful spreading branch habit. My favorite prune plum is Valor because it is very big and has that rich super-sweet quality and it can ripen from the last week of August here until the first hard frost. That is an extremely long picking time even for a prune plum. The reason I recommend Castleton over Valor is because of its consistency at many sites I manage. The funny thing is that at some sites plums are generally much more reliable than other sites for reasons I've never been able to decipher. That means that to really know what is best at your site you'd have to try several varieties and find out yourself but if you're just going to try one I think Castleton is your best bet. ACN carries it but you'd better order ASAP because the commercial growers are sucking it up.

Hi -- I know some of the answers to your questions. American plum self-fertile -- seems to be. I had 2 and then cut down one after it got old and started to go - the other still seems to bear well. There are other plums around the yard, plus various wild Prunus species in the neighborhood, plus various oranmental plum and sandcherries in the neighborhood as well. 2) 5 x 5 foot size. Yeah, I don't see a real problem with it. My 2 American plum seedlings grew naturally to about 7 to 8 feet max, with probably a 6 to 8 foot spread. So, with a little pruning, probably not too much of a problem. 3) Partial shade -- definitely. My surviving one is in about 2/3rds shade now, as the trees around it have gotten larger, and it seems perfectly happy as an understory type tree. It still gets pretty good light because the two trees near it are a Kentucky Coffe and a Sycamore, and both don't start to branch until very high off the ground. 4) Taste -- Well, the fruits of my plum are quite tasty when fully ripe and slightly soft. They have a bit of astringency when not fully ripe. They make wonderful plum sauce, jelly, baked tarts, etc. I've never had the Chickasaw plum, so can't comment. I did plant a beach plum last year, but it's still only a foot tall.

Lorraine, I'm in the same boat. I live in San Diego and have a dwarf Santa Rosa plum tree that I've had at least 4 years. This is the first year that I've had a significant amount of blossoms set fruit (although last year I moved the tree from a pot to in the ground a bit late in the year, losing almost all of my blossoms). Some of the lower ones are yellowing and will probably fall off. I've got my fingers crossed for this year.