Bradshaw European Plum
Bradshaw European Plum
History: Despite once being the most commonly planted commercial plum tree in New York, Bradshaw's origins are quite hazy. It is uncertain whether the variety even originated in Europe or the US. It was named in 1846 by C.M. Hovey who wrote about it in his "Magazine of Horticulture," naming the variety "Bradshaw" after an E.E. Bradshaw who had exhibited excellent specimens of the fruit for several years. Bradshaw has since been eclipsed by other plum varieties.
Why We Grow It: Bradshaw produces relatively large purplish-red plums of good quality. The flavour is pleasantly sweet and the variety is good for fresh eating and likely cooking and processing like other European plums. It is semi-clingstone. The tree is self-fertile, productive, and quite hardy, although it can be slow to start bearing fruit.
Fruit Specs
Fruit Specs
Recommended Use: Fresh eating, cooking, preserving
Fruit Size: Medium to Large
Storage: Keeps about a week in the fridge
Harvest: September - Mid
Growing Specs
Growing Specs
Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5
Soil Preference: Sandy loam and loam, like plenty of organic material. Prefers average to moist conditions with well-drained soils, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring.
Flowering Time:
Bloom Colour: White
Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without a European plum tree of a different variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present
Sun/Shade Requirements:
Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)
General Growth Habits:
Vigorous and large with a dense growth habit, hardy, takes a long time to start bearing fruit but produce heavy and regular crops when it does. Susceptible to brown rot.
Shipping vs. Pick Up
Shipping vs. Pick Up
CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.
Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.
Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.
Size at Purchase
Size at Purchase
Our grafted fruit trees are graded into three categories, and the size includes the rootstock:
- 50-80cm whip: may have some minor branching, this grade is like a "b-grade" size tree in industry standards; we include in this price category trees that are over 1m but have some scarring or mild crookedness.
- 1m+ whip: may have some minor branching, aka feathering. This is like a typical one-year whip in industry standards.
- 1m+ branched: these trees must be over a meter and have 3 or more branches 30cm or longer, as well as a central leader. They are essentially a two-year tree in industry standards.
- For stone fruits only - 1m+ whip/branched: We have combined these grades based on the way these trees grow and are grafted. Plums, apricots, cherries, and peaches naturally tend to grow more vigorously compared to apples and are more likely to form larger trees with more branches. However, we only chip bud them so they are a one-year old tree by industry standards. Apples and pears are partially bench grafted, and using the knip-boom method the grading becomes more complicated, hence the reason they are split into different grades.
Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "to small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the trees are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.