In cooler regions the copper beech and red-leaf crab apples are popular, but in warmer areas the Purple Leaf Plum stands out, bringing rich purple-red leaves that hold their color all summer long. The Krauter Vesuvius Purple Leaf Plum, which brings the bonus of a profusion of spring flowers, and has vigorous, richly-colored leaves, is a top-choice form of this popular tree, and one you should choose.

Growing Krauter Vesuvius Purple Leaf Plum Trees

The Krauter Vesuvius Purple Leaf Plum is a small tree, reaching 15 to 20 feet tall and spreading about the same distance wide. It has a dense, upright crown of many branches, and in spring they are covered in a profuse blooming of small pale-pink flowers. The leaves are oval, up to 2 ½ inches long, with an edge like a tiny saw-blade, but not sharp. In spring they are a brilliant deep red, and as they mature they turn dark reddish-purple, holding that color all summer long, even in states with long, hot summers.

All of this makes the tree a much better choice than many other red-leaf small trees, such as most varieties of crab apple, which turn greenish in hot summers. Some summers this tree will produce small, edible plums, but far less than most other Purple Leaf Plums. This is a good thing, since the fruit can be messy when it drops, so don’t plant beside a paved area.

Uses in Your Garden

With its rich foliage color, the Krauter Vesuvius Purple Leaf Plum is the perfect choice for making a bold landscape statement in your garden. Plant a pair on either side of an entrance. Plant a row spaced 15 to 20 feet apart along your property line, as a spectacular boundary, or along a driveway to create a majestic entrance. Planted closer together they make a solid summer screen. Plant a specimen in a lawn for a tree that won’t get too large, even in a smaller garden. The deep, rich color of this tree looks best against a backdrop of green leaves, where the color really stands out.

Appearance

This tree blooms very early, and in milder areas you will see flowers during warm spells in late winter. The main blooming happens in very early spring, and the scented flowers crowd the bare branches, making a beautiful sight. This dramatic display is a wonderful prelude for spring in your garden, and an added bonus to the value of this superb tree.

Planting and Initial Care

The Krauter Vesuvius Purple Leaf Plum is easy to grow, and it should be planted in full sun, to keep that leaf color strong. In too much shade it can become greenish in summer, and flowering will be reduced too. It will grow well in any garden soil that is well-drained. Water your new tree regularly during the first year or two, so that it establishes a vigorous root system. After that, this tree is moderately resistant to drought, and it needs very little attention, so it’s perfect for the busy gardener. Mulch the roots in spring with rich organic material, or use a fertilizer for flowering trees, to keep your trees vigorous and healthy. Weak trees are more prone to disease and pests.

Maintenance

You can allow your tree to grow naturally, but some regular pruning is recommended to keep it vigorous and bushy. Do this after the petals fall from the flowers and begin by removing weak or dead branches first. Then shorten the younger branches by one-third, to encourage bushy new growth. Keep a framework of older branches in the lower part of the tree. You can also cut back by about two-thirds if you have not been pruning regularly. Pruning causes strong vigorous shoots to develop, with large leaves that are vibrantly colored. If you prune hard, it may take a couple of years for full flowering to return to your tree.

History and Origins of the Krauter Vesuvius Purple Leaf Plum Tree

The cherry plum, or myrobalan, is the parent of the Krauter Vesuvius Purple Leaf Plum. This green-leafed tree, called Prunus cerasifera, is not known in the wild, but seems to be an ancient large-fruiting selection of Prunus divaricata, a tree that grows wild in the Caucus Mountains, through Iran, and across central Asia. In 1880, a Frenchman, Monsieur Pissard, who was the head-gardener to the Shah of Iran, found a form of cherry plum which had pink flowers and deep red leaves. He sent plants to France, and from there it spread across Europe and to North America. His plant is called ‘Pissardii’.

Several selections and improvements of the ‘Pissardii’ plant have been made over the years, and in 1957 Howard Krauter, whose father Karl owned Krauter Nursery in Bakersfield, California, found a branch on a tree of ‘Pissardii’ which remains deep red right into fall. He gave pieces to the L.E. Cooke nursery to grow some plants, they grew well, and were called ‘Krauter Vesuvius’, the best tree for stable red foliage all summer and into fall.

Our trees are skillfully produced by attaching sturdy stem pieces of the named variety onto selected forms of the green-leaf cherry plum. these develop into vigorous and hardy trees that will thrive in your garden. This ever-popular tree is always in high demand by gardeners looking for a bold specimen tree that is easy to grow. We will soon have no more stock – so order now.

The Thundercloud Purple Leaf Plum grows quickly into a small tree, 15 to 25 feet tall in time, and spreading 15 to 20 feet wide. It has an attractive upright form, often with several major branches and dark brown bark. But it is the foliage which is the real feature of this terrific tree. The leaves are 2 ½ inches long, oval in shape, with tiny soft teeth along the edge. They emerge in spring, as the flowers begin to fade, and at that time they are ruby red, making a spectacular and brilliant effect. As they mature, and summer comes along, they darken to a rich coppery purple-red. Unlike other red-leaf trees – for example most crab apples – this color does not fade with the heat of summer, but instead stays strong right into fall. For a bold color effect in your garden, this tree cannot be beaten.

As if this was not enough, in late winter to early spring your Thundercloud Purple Leaf Plum becomes a beacon of floral beauty, when the branches are smothered in large single flowers of a delicate shell-pink color. These are fragrant and attract the early bees. The fragile beauty of this tree in flower will catch your heart, and in warmer states flowers can emerge even in mid-winter, during warm spells.

The flowers are followed by a crop of 1-inch edible plums, also colored purple-red. These are not like the large edible plums, but they can be used to make delicious jams and chutneys. Don’t plant this tree over a paved surface, as the falling plums can stain stonework and brick, as well as being a slipping hazard. On a lawn or in a garden bed they will quickly be removed by squirrels and birds, who love them. Some years you may see very few fruits, depending on weather conditions during flowering.

Growing Thundercloud Purple Leaf Plum Trees

Use the Thundercloud Purple Leaf Plum as a specimen tree in a lawn. Plant a group in the corner of your garden. A row makes a beautiful screen in all seasons, and you can vary the distance between the plants to create different effects. Spaced at around 25 feet apart will give you an elegant avenue to line a driveway, or to mark your property boundary. Closer spacing will create a screen, and you can plant as close as 8 feet apart for a solid barrier. This tree looks beautiful in a well-arranged garden, where it can be trimmed it keep it neat. In a more natural garden, let it grow more naturally, pruning to open out the structure of the branches, giving a mature and ‘wild’ look.

Planting and Initial Care

Plant your Thundercloud Purple Leaf Plum in full sun for maximum flowering and the most intense leaf color. In shade the leaves will tend to turn more greenish after their initial spring colors, and flowering will be much less prolific. It will grow across almost all the country, from cool zone 5 to warm zone 9. When it comes to soil, your tree is not very particular at all, and it will grow well in most soils, as long as they drain well and are not constantly wet.

Watering regularly during the first couple of years will encourage strong growth and deep rooting. After that your tree will be unaffected by normal periods of summer dryness. In spring use a mulch of rich organic material, or a fertilizer for flowering trees, to keep the growth of your tree vigorous and healthy.

Maintenance

You can let the Thundercloud Purple Leaf Plum grow without pruning, or you can prune as often as once a year to encourage a dense, bushy crown. Trees that are pruned hard and often will have bold foliage with large leaves, but flowering will be reduced, so strike a balance, and prune a little each year or second year, to encourage both flowers and good foliage. To prevent infection from disease, prune in spring or early summer only. Just after flowering is best. Remove any weak or dying branches, and trim back younger growth by about one-third, cutting just above an outward-facing bud.

History and Origins of the Thundercloud Purple Leaf Plum Tree

The Thundercloud Purple Leaf Plum is a selected variety of the cherry plum, or myrobalan (Prunus cerasifera). This tree does not exist in the wild, but it is very similar to a truly-wild tree called Prunus divaricata. That tree grows wild throughout Central Asia, from the Caucus Mountains to Iran and further east. Monsieur Pissard was the French head-gardener of the Shah of Iran, and he found a tree of cherry plum which had pink flowers, rather than the white ones of wild trees, and instead of normal green leaves,his tree had deep-red ones.

In 1880 he sent this new plant to France, and it quickly became popular and spread across Europe and then to North America. His plant is today known as ‘Pissardii’. Gardeners and nurserymen created improved versions of this plant, and in 1937 a form was found at the Housewearts Nursery, in Woodbury, Oregon. It was named ‘Thundercloud’, for its dark color, and became the hugely popular plant you can now have in your own garden.

Skilled specialist growers take stem pieces from correctly identified trees, and they graft them to the roots of selected forms of the green-leaf cherry plum. This way you receive a healthy and vigorous tree, suitable for a wide range of soils. This ever-popular tree is always in high demand, so order now while our limited stock is still available.

Plums are flowering trees in the Rosaceae family and different species originate in both Europe and China (although the eastern varieties are now usually known as Japanese Plums, for reasons nobody seems too sure about). They were already a popular fruit by classical times, and the Romans wrote of more than 300 separate varieties; there are even more now, and both Japanese and European varieties have been exported around the world. Either one will grow well across large parts of the United States.

Growing Santa Rosa Plum Trees

This variety of Plum can be grown successfully in USDA plant hardiness zones 5 to 9, making it suitable for most of the continental USA apart from the extreme north of New England and the Midwest. Look for a well-drained spot to plant it in; like most trees this one doesn’t like having too much water around its roots. It also prefers to be in full sun – it can tolerate some shade, but both flowers and the fruit crop are likely to suffer. While the variety can self-fertilize you’ll get a much better crop if you have at least two of them in your garden.

Plum Production

Although they look good in bloom, the Santa Rosa isn’t an ornamental tree; it’s a real fruit producer that used to be a mainstay of commercial Plum growing until it was largely replaced by more disease-resistant varieties. In fact many are still grown commercially, and the distinctive fruit can often be found at farmer’s markets. Because of this heritage it does need a little bit of work to keep it in top condition, but it’s nothing to get worried about. The main point to consider is pruning.

Pruning

It’s best to prune this species every year, ideally in late winter. Cut away any dead branches or ones affected by disease, then look for any that have formed narrow V-shaped forks and cut those back too; forks like this are vulnerable to breaking when the tree is laden with fruit. Vertical shoots should be pruned, aiming to keep an open-centered shape overall; branches that are allowed to grow upwards will be hard to reach later and a lot of the tree’s energy will go to growing Plums you can’t pick. Instead they’ll fall to the ground when they’re over-ripe and form a tasty attraction for every yellowjacket in the neighborhood.

Around midsummer you can go over the tree with a set of light cutters, removing any new growth twigs more than about four inches long. Not long after that it’s time to start thinning the fruit. If left alone the Santa Rosa can produce so many Plums the weight breaks its own branches, and the quality of the crop will also suffer, so thin them until there’s one every four to six inches.

History and Origins of the Santa Rosa Plum Tree

The Santa Rosa is a variety of the Chinese Plum tree Prunus salicina, and was developed in 1906 by prolific California breeder Luther Burbank. It’s a medium sized tree that can grow up to 25 feet high and the same wide. It’s quite an open tree that develops additional side branches as it matures, and simply for its appearance it would be a welcome addition to almost any garden.

In spring it grows a cloak of ovoid, bright green leaves up to around four inches long, and follows this in May with a showy eruption of pink and white flowers. These are close to an inch across and have five petals; individually they have quite a delicate appearance but the effect of a full tree in bloom is quite impressive. In late summer, the plums themselves start to grow, steadily ripening into dark red-purple fruit that add a conspicuous burst of color to the tree. You’ll find the fruit crop is more than generous, too – this tree is a famously good producer.

Adding Santa Rosa Plum Trees to Your Garden

When ripe the Santa Rosa’s Plums are a medium to large variety with a dark skin and red bloom surrounding bright, yellowish flesh. They’re a perfect blend of sweet and tart, leading many experts to view them as the benchmark for how a plum should taste. The flesh is also firm enough to make them ideal for canning. With a couple of these classic Plum trees in your garden you’ll have an impressive spring and summer display and a huge fruity bonus in fall.

The flowers are replaced by purple leaves in summer, which deepen to a rich crimson in time for autumn. The twisted brown branches evoke a mysterious quality in winter, twirling in the white snow to provide four season beauty. The Newport Flowering Plum is also a perfect shade tree. After reaching to between 25 and 30 feet tall, the 20 to 25 foot spread of this Plum Tree offers a peaceful shade, sparing its sequestered people and undergrowth from the harshest summer rays.

Many flowering ornamental trees are limited in range, due to either poor weather variability tolerance, specific soil or watering requirements, or other needs that limit the ornamental from performing in a variety of locations. This is not the case for Newport Flowering Plum Trees, which grow throughout most of the United States.

Growing Newport Flowering Plum Trees

The Newport Flowering Plum Tree has a fast, dependable growth rate. It gains between 3 and 5 feet of new growth a year – or sometimes even more! In order to get the fastest growth, water the Newport Flowering Plum Tree at least once a week and fertilize once in spring and once in late summer. The Newport Flowering Plum Tree is an immensely popular ornamental shade tree that is planted throughout much of the United States. It is widely planted for a wide variety of reasons. It is a reliable tree, and when provided proper care, it will delight each season and live a healthy life. Paired with this is the tree’s fast growth rate, which quickly raises the tree up to its full height in just a few seasons.

Colors

The stunning seasonal interest of the Newport Flowering Plum Tree also makes it a popular plant. Springtime brings beautiful white to pink blossoms, which fall to reveal majestic purple leaves in summer. Over the hot summer days, the leaves slowly darken to a rich crimson, sprinkling the otherwise yellow-brown autumn foliage with vibrant burgundy. The Newport Flowering Plum cannot fail to make a visual impression on its planters!

Pruning and Maintenance

The Newport Flowering Plum Tree is an easy-to-care-for tree. Pruning and daily maintenance are not needed, making this an ideal tree for a first time planter. Its small size makes it perfect for smaller nooks and patio areas. It works well for those with limited space. When fully mature, the Newport Flowering Plum Tree usually reaches between 25 and 30 feet tall and between 20 and 25 feet wide.

Planting Location

These Plum Trees are famously adaptable, so any location in full sun or partial shade should be fine. Once you’ve decided where to plant the tree, you need to dig a hole! The hole should be twice as wide as the Newport Flowering Plum Tree, and only just as deep. In fact, if the root ball of the Plum Tree protrudes from the soil about 1 inch, all the better. The tree will settle over time. Once the tree is in the hole, hold it vertically and backfill with soil and water. Use mulch around the base of the tree and water immediately.

Hardiness

The Newport Flowering Plum Tree is rated hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 4-10, making it one of the few trees to grow successfully in all 48 contiguous United States. Like most trees, the Newport Flowering Plum Tree prefers moist, well-drained, slightly acidic soil. However, this tree is also adaptable to clay, silty, or sandy soils.

Pests and Diseases

This hardy Flowering Plum Tree manages drought and harsh climates with ease. Some gardeners have reported infestations of wood borers. These insects will drill into the plant system, severing the transport systems. This causes the leaves and roots to dry up. Controlling these borers is manageable though. If diseased branches are discovered, remove them immediately. Insecticides and fungicides can be used to deter wood borers and other mildew diseases, like cherry leaf spot.

Buying Newport Flowering Plum Trees at The Tree Center

Be warned! Not every Newport Flowering Plum Tree is the same! Some nurseries seek to cut costs by replacing the more expensive Newport Plum with a lower-quality variety, cutting costs but leaving you with trees that will not offer the same growth, color, or beauty for which the Newport Flowering Plum Tree is known! Proper investment means using a respected nursery. The highly qualified staff at The Tree Center provide the proper care and daily maintenance young saplings require in order to develop into the mature, low-maintenance Newport Flowering Plum Trees for which you are searching. The highest quality trees are just a click away!

The best of the breed is available for you at The Tree Center. Our wide range of stocks and supplies is limited and always changing, so be sure to pick out your superb Newport Flowering Plum Tree today while supplies last!