Plum

Value to bees

Nectar

Moderate

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally

Which bees, and why

Flowering in March means honey bees are frequently grounded by cold, and mason bees and mining bees — which fly at lower temperatures — do a disproportionate share of the pollination. Bumblebee queens work it heavily in the same window.

Worth knowing

A useful early nectar source and a generous pollen source when colonies most need pollen for brood rearing.

Flowering

In flower

March to April (northern hemisphere)

Very early — often the first orchard fruit in flower, and correspondingly frost-vulnerable.

When nectar flows

Reasonable and early, and useful mainly for building colonies rather than for surplus.

Year-to-year variation

A minor crop. Plum blossom honey is rarely separated and mostly contributes to early mixed honey in orchard districts.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun, shelter from spring frost, and moisture-retentive soil. Frost during bloom is the commonest cause of crop failure.

Size

3-8 m depending on rootstock.

Native range

A hybrid of Eurasian origin, cultivated for millennia across Europe and western Asia.

Suits

Small gardens, Orchard, Large gardens

• Many cultivars are self-fertile, so a single tree can crop — which makes plum a good choice for a small garden.
• Very early flowering means frost risk; avoid frost pockets and low-lying sites.
• Prune only in summer, never in winter, to avoid silver leaf disease.

What it looks like

A small spreading tree with oval leaves and clusters of white five-petalled flowers opening before the leaves, giving the bare branches a solid white outline.