UK Plum Trees for Sale: Buying Guide

Plum, Gage and Damson Trees: What’s the Difference?

They are close relatives and are grown in much the same way, but they suit slightly different buyers.

• Plum trees: the main all-round choice. Some are best for eating fresh, some are better for cooking, and some do both.
• Gage and greengage trees: types of plum often grown for sweet dessert fruit, although some are culinary or dual-purpose.
• Damson trees: usually sharper than dessert plums and normally used for cooking, jams and preserves.

In simple buying terms: choose a plum for the easiest all-round fruit tree, a gage if sweet flavour is your priority, and a damson if you want cooking fruit, jam or preserves.

You can also browse our plum trees for sale, gage and greengage trees for sale, or damson trees for sale.

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The Next Best Plum, Gage and Damson Trees to Buy

Start with these Trees Online options if you want a quick shortlist rather than comparing every plum, gage and damson variety.

Best Plum Trees for Beginners

• Victoria Plum Tree - familiar, self-fertile and useful for both eating and cooking.
• Opal Plum Tree - self-fertile and a useful early-season dessert plum.
• Czar Plum Tree - self-fertile and useful as a cooking or dual-purpose plum.
• Jubilee Plum Tree - a Victoria-style plum for eating and cooking.

Best Gage and Greengage Trees for Sweet Fruit

• Old Greengage Tree - classic greengage for rich dessert fruit.
• Cambridge Gage Tree - popular gage with sweet dessert fruit.
• Oullins Golden Gage Tree - useful gage option if you want sweet fruit.

Best Damson Trees for Cooking, Jam and Preserves

• Merryweather Damson - a well-known damson for cooking, jam and preserving.
• Shropshire Prune - traditional damson-type fruit for cooking and preserving.
• Farleigh Damson Tree - useful damson choice if you want fruit for kitchen use.

Best Choices for Small Gardens and Pots

• Patio plum trees - best if space is tight or you want a tree for a large container.
• Trained plum trees - cordons and fans can work well where space is narrow.
• Self-fertile varieties - usually the easiest option if you only want one tree.
• Smaller rootstocks - check the rootstock before buying, because it controls the eventual size.

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Stepping Into The Dark Side of Buying a Plum Tree Online

If you truly want to take charge of your fruit tree buying decision then you need to know a few things. 

Do you want a plum, gage or damson?
A plum is the safest all-round choice. A gage is usually bought for sweeter dessert fruit. A damson is usually bought for sharper fruit for cooking, jams and preserves.

Is it self-fertile?
Many plum, gage and damson trees are self-fertile i.e. will produce fruit without the need of another tree nearby, so you can often grow just one tree. Even though a tree is self-fertile, harvest sizes can be improved by adding a pollination partner nearby (explained later). You need to know about pollination and fertility if your tree is not self-fertile, otherwise you might have no plums, damsons or gages. 

How big will it get?
The rootstock tells you how big the tree is likely to become. This matters if you are planting in a small garden, near a fence, or in a large pot. See rootstocks below. 

Bare root or Potted?

Bare root is available to buy, and plant from November to March called the dormant period, which is after leaf drop and before new foliage appears. They are the same tree as the potted versions but come with no soil around the roots. They are usually cheaper and can come with a few extra options e.g. maiden 1-year-old. This means you can train it to be any shape or form you wish.

Bare root options have a few other considerations which the novice gardener might not be aware of e.g.

• Leaving the roots exposed and drying out.
• Planting too deep and burying the graft union
• Not firming the soil around the roots properly
• Not watering after planting (helps fill voids) 
• Letting mulch touch the trunk

These extra points can be a cause of poor performance or failure i.e. arguably bareroot can have a slightly higher failure rate. 

Potted or containerised plants are available all year round and can be planted so long as the ground is not waterlogged, frozen or too dry. 

Tree form
This is the shape or style it has been grown to e.g. half-standard, bush etc. There can be extreme differences between two different forms so worth while reading up on the differences.  See Tree Form below. 

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Plum, Gage and Damson Tree Rootstocks

A plum tree is usually made of two parts.

Rootstock: the roots and lower stem. This controls vigour (how much effort a tree puts into growing and bushing out) and size.
Scion: the plum, gage or damson variety grafted onto the rootstock, i.e the rest of the tree. This gives you the fruit variety.

It would be great if rootstocks had an easy-to-understand name like "small garden suitable" but you know what people who get to name things are like, they like to make things sound a certain way. Below is a height guide for each rootstock. 

Rootstock	Vigour	Approximate RHS size guidance	Best use
VVA-1	Semi-dwarfing	About 3m as a bush	Smaller garden trees where available
Pixy	Semi-dwarfing	About 3-4m as a bush	Bush trees, fans and some trained forms
St Julien A	Semi-vigorous	About 3.6-4.5m as a bush	Good general garden rootstock for plums, gages and damsons
Brompton / Myrobalan B	Vigorous	About 6m	Larger gardens, orchards and places with more room

For most normal gardens, St Julien A is a useful middle-ground rootstock. It gives you a useful height fruit tree without going straight into full orchard size. For smaller gardens and pots, go with VVA-1 or Pixy. You can grow St Julien A in pots but you will need a larger pot. The bigger the pot, the fewer problems you are likely to have, such as blowing over, drying out if you forget to water, and roots spiralling around the pot. 

Tree Form

Tree form means the shape you are buying. It affects how the tree looks, how much space it needs, and how easy it is to pick and prune.

Bush: short clear stem of around  45 cm before branches start. Usually the easiest form for picking, pruning and general care of the tree. More growing real estate compared to a half standard, and it lets more air and light into the canopy which is better for fruiting and tree health. Good for beginners, but not as ornamental as a half standard.

Half standard: taller clear stem of around 80-100cm. Useful if you want space under the crown to mow or plant something else nearby. The downside is that picking and pruning can be slightly less convenient than with a bush form, but it looks more ornamental. 

Standard: Clear trunk around 180-200cm and larger crown. Better for large gardens or orchard-style planting. The advantage is a proper tree shape with more presence and large fruit harvests; the downside is that it needs more space and is harder to pick and prune compared to smaller forms. 

Patio: compact tree for a pot or small garden, usually on a smaller rootstock. The advantage is that it suits limited space and can be easier to protect from frost by moving to a warmer location, e.g. higher ground, south-facing wall, unheated conservatory/greenhouse. Move back as soon as frost risk has passed otherwise pollination could be reduced. The downside is that it needs more regular watering and feeding than a tree planted in the ground.

Fan-trained: branches trained flat against a wall or support in the shape of a fan. Useful where you want to use a warm wall e.g. south-facing and give blossom a little more protection from cold winds and frost. Sun-loving fruit trees do well in this form. The advantage is better use of warmth, shelter and space; the downside is that it needs training, pruning, suitable support and is more expensive to buy and ship. If you have the patience, buy a maiden and prune it yourself into a fan shape. We suggest investing a few hours on YouTube to learn how. 

Maiden: a one to two-year-old tree that has had no pruning. It is this form that every other form comes from e.g. bush, half standard, fan etc. Where you cut determines it's future shape. The advantage is flexibility and low cost; the downside is that it needs more skill, patience and time before it looks like a finished tree, usually 1-2 seasons. 

If you are new to fruit trees, choose a bush or half-standard. If you enjoy pruning, training and something a bit different, then cordons and fans become more interesting.

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Other Useful Things to Know Before Buying a Plum Tree

Once you have picked the type of fruit tree, there are a few practical details that decide whether the tree is a good buy for your garden.

Pollination

Many plum, gage and damson trees are self-fertile and are listed as such in the product description, so one tree will technically bear fruit. That being said, self-fertile trees can crop better with another suitable variety nearby. ^[2]  Trees listed as semi-self-fertile will definitely crop better. For those that are not self-fertile, you will need a pollination partner, explained below. 

Pollination Partner

You need a pollination partner if your fruit tree is NOT self-fertile.

Your plum, gage or damson tree will have some sort of letter and/or number displayed called a flowering group, e.g. C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5. Each one represents a period of time when the flowers will open. For pollination to happen and the fruit growing process to begin, a bee or other flying buzzy thing needs to have visited a different variety of plum, gage or damson before visiting yours and transfer pollen. To clarify, plums, gages and damsons will cross-pollinate each other as they are very similar. 

For maximum pollination, your flowers need to be open for as long as the other pollinating tree flowers are open, and this is achieved by buying a second tree with the same letter/number combination e.g. a C3 and a C3. The variety needs to be different, e.g. two Avalon (C3) plum trees will not cross-pollinate each other.

You can also buy your second plum, gage or damson tree from a group one below or one above, as the flowering times will overlap. It will not be for as long as the same numbered group but enough to give a decent harvest.  

As you can see, self-fertile in the best way to go if you only have room for one tree. If one is listed as partially self-fertile, it means you won't get a full crop of fruit unless you plant a pollination partner nearby.

Pollination Summary
An appropriate pollination partner is one that is in the same flowering group or one above or one below the first tree you buy.

Two non-self-fertile plum, gage or damson need to be in the same flowering group for best results. Next best results are the second tree being one flowering group above or below. 

Two self-fertile trees will improve fruit yields so long as they are appropriate pollination partners. 

Warmth and Shelter

For the best crops, plant plums, gages and damsons in a warm, sunny, sheltered spot although some growers say good results can come from partial shade also. The warmest and sunniest sheltered spot is usually a south-facing or south-west-facing position, ideally near a wall or fence that catches the sun and gives protection from cold wind. Avoid frost pockets and exposed windy sites Gages are especially worth giving your best warm position because they are usually grown for high-quality dessert fruit. ^[2]

Harvest Timing

Different varieties crop at different times, and flowering group is not a reliable indicator of when to expect fruit. AN entire crop from two trees in one go is a lot of fruit so spacing out harvest times is helpful. Also, choosing fruit with a long storage time reduces rushed cooking, freezing and dehydrating sessions to prevent waste. We have highlighted those noted for having longer storage times in red.

RHS AGM stands for Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit, basically an all-round good performer compared to others in the group. Below is a list of plums, gages and damsons listed by harvest times of "early season", "mid-season" and "late in the season".

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Patio Plum Trees for Small Gardens and Pots

Patio plum, damson and gage trees are useful if you want fruit but do not have room for a full garden tree. The right rootstock will keep the tree smaller i.e. making it more suitable to grow in a pot or on a patio,  but they need more attention. ^[7]

For a small garden or pot, look for:

• patio plum trees in pots or dwarf plum trees
• dwarf or semi-dwarfing rootstocks e.g. VVA-1, Pixy and St Julien A
• self-fertile varieties if you only want one tree

Container-grown plum trees need regular watering in dry spells and should not be allowed to dry out completely. They may also need feeding because nutrients wash out of pots more quickly than from garden soil. ^{[1] [7]}

Below are common symptoms associated with pot-grown plum trees and what they usually mean.

Wilting leaves and dry compost — water deeply until water drains from the bottom.
Water running straight through the pot — soak the pot slowly in stages; very dry compost can repel water at first.
Yellow leaves and soggy compost — reduce watering and check the drainage holes are clear.
Poor new growth — feed in spring and check whether the tree is rootbound.
Roots coming from drainage holes — move into a larger container or refresh the compost.
Tree blowing over — use a heavier pot, move it out of strong wind or stake it securely.
Few flowers — move to a sunnier sheltered position and avoid over-pruning.
Flowers but no fruit — check pollination, frost damage and whether bees were active during flowering.
Lots of small fruits — thin the fruit if the crop is overcrowded.
Fruit dropping early — water consistently and reduce stress on the tree.
Sticky leaves — check for aphids and treat early before they spread.

For most beginners with limited space, the easiest route is a small,garden plum tree that is potted, self-fertile, in the largest container you can handle, placed in the sunniest sheltered spot you have. The smaller the pot, the more maintenance and risk.

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Plum, Gage and Damson Tree Buying FAQs

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