Semi-Dwarf Yellow Egg
European Plum semi-dwarf 'Yellow Egg' as a cross-pollinator for semi-dwarf 'Italian Plum' so that they might co-habit in a low-maintenance roadside sun-garden. 'Yellow Plum' is very self-fertile, but allegedly any plum can produce even better with a second variety of plum nearby. It's certainly not essential, however, not like it is for sweet cherries or apples. And despite the often-stated idea that even self-fertile fruit trees produce more fruit with a second variety nearby, I've seen both 'Yellow Plum' & 'Italian Plum' growing in small stands of only one or the other, & the limbs so laden with fruit it would be ridiculous to suppose a second cultivar could increase that
Also called 'Pelshore Yellow Egg,' this variety is very widely cultivated in the Northwest. 'Pelshore' began as a single tree discovered as a seedling in the Tiddesley Woods, Vale of Evesham, dug up to moved to a Worcestershire orchard circa 1827. It proved so productive that over time it became the most commonly grown yellow plum, with other varieties mostly descended from 'Pelshore.'Yellow Egg is frequently regarded only a cooking plum, but this is a serious error. It is true that when they are picked not-fully-ripened so that they will be tough enough to ship to markets without mushing & bruising, the unripe plum is tart. Though it will soften as it ages, it won't be any sweeter, so store-bought Yellow Eggs are mostly good only for cooking. But left on the tree to ripen, it is very sweet, & the skin no longer tough. It cannot be shipped to market as a tree-ripened fruit because by then it is very soft & will not keep fresh for any length of time, so the only chance to taste this perfectly luscious fruit is to have access to a tree.The origin of the Prunus domesticus is a little uncertain, but it is believed to have originated less than 2,000 years ago on the Caspian Sea side of the Caucasus Mountains. It was a spontaneous hybrid of the diploid P. cerasifera with the tetraploid P. spinosa resulting in the hexaploid plum trees now generally called P. domesticus.
The Vale of Evesham was for two centuries or longer a famous plum growers' center in England & even today the Vale boasts a half-dozen growers of consequence, though that is a fraction of the numbers of growers that once were. Sadly, so recently as the 1980s & 1990s, the majority of those growers who once made the Vale a fruiting paradise gave up their orchards due to changing economics & the government's unwillingness to assist in the wake of a growers' crisis caused by two tree-killing extreme winters.
As the orchards were abandoned, heirloom varieties of plums were subsequently lost, though most of the important ones are now grown on the European continent & in North America. Certainly the popular 'Yellow Egg' has never been at risk of disappearing.
