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Aprimira® inter-specific trees

Prunus x insititia
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Aprimira is listed in the RHS Plants for Pollinators
  • Picking season: Early
  • Self-fertility: Self-fertile

Aprimira is a new hybrid mirabelle - apricot. The fruits are sweet, and relatively large by the standards of mirabelles - more like small apricots in size. However in most other respects the mirabelle side of the partnership is the most prominent, and Aprimira is best considered as a larger pink / yellow-flushed mirabelle.

The blossom is plain white, and appears at about the same time as the leaves. 

The fruits ripen gradually throughout August, at about the same time as Victoria plums, and can be picked fresh from the tree over an extended period. They will also keep fresh in a fridge for about a week - longer than most dessert plums. They are particularly pretty - a mix of dusky red and orange hues.

The flavour is especially sweet and the stone falls away cleanly from the flesh, making Aprimira easy to use in the kitchen.

We think Aprimira is one of the best of the new inter-specific stone fruit varieties.

Aprimira inter-specific trees for sale

Pot-grown

All our pot-grown trees are grown for us to our specification by the Frank P Matthews nursery.

All pot-grown trees are suitable for planting out in the garden, some are suitable for growing in containers.

  • PG12-year bush-trained 12L pot-grown tree Wavit rootstock£60.50
    Grown for us by Frank P Matthews nursery
    Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)

Bare-root

  • BR11-year bare-root treeWeiwa rootstock£43.75
    Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)

Need help? Ask our fruit tree experts

Call us on 01759 392007 or fill in our contact form.

Tree specification

Photos of trees as supplied | Tree sizes and forms

Next deliveries

Order now for delivery from week commencing 24th February.

Delivery charges

Delivery for a single tree starts at £9.95, it is calculated based on your postcode.

Growing and Training

Aprimira is self-fertile, and flowers early in the spring. Nevertheless, despite the apricot ancestry, Aprimira flowers in the mirabelle / plum blossom season, not the apricot season (which is earlier in the spring).

Aprimira is useful pollinator for other very early flowering plum species, including pluots, cherry plums and other mirabelles.

History

Mirabelles and apricots are closely related members of the Prunus family, and many of these varieties will naturally cross-pollinate each other to create new hybrids.

Aprimira was developed at the Geisenheim research station in Germany from a Mirabelle von Herrenhausen, and released in 1994.


Aprimira characteristics

Growing

  • Gardening skillAverage
  • Self-fertilitySelf-fertile
  • Flowering group2
  • Climate suitabilityTemperate climatesWarm climates

Using

  • Picking seasonEarly
  • CroppingGood
  • Keeping (of fruit)1 week
  • Food usesEating freshCulinaryDual purpose

Identification

  • Country of originGermany
  • Period of origin1950 - 1999
  • Fruit colourYellow
  • Flesh colourGolden / Yellow

Similar varieties

  • See also Aprikyra
    Aprikyra
    A sweet self-fertile apricot-cherry cross, also known as an Aprichery or Cherrycot
  • See also Aprisali
    Aprisali
    A sweet self-fertile apricot - plum cross, also known as an Aprium.

British-grown trees Trees grown in the UK.

Unlike many garden centres and online retailers, the vast majority of our fruit trees are grown in the UK. Find out more.

In addition, all our trees are certified under the Plant Healthy scheme, supervised by the Plant Health Alliance. Other stakeholders include Defra and the RHS. The scheme aims to improve UK biosecurity by setting standards for all growers and retailers involved in selling plants in the UK. Find out more

Guaranteed fruit trees

When you buy your fruit tree from Orange Pippin Fruit Trees we guarantee it for the first season in your garden whilst it gets established. If it doesn't grow successfully, we'll either replace it the following season or offer a refund - subject to some conditions. Find out more.

More about inter-specific trees

New fruit varieties are usually developed by crossing varieties of the same species. However new varieties can also arise from inter-breeding between varieties of different (but related) species. These are known as hybrid or inter-specific varieties.

Hybridisation is particularly common in stone fruits such as plums, cherries, and apricots. Indeed the common plum (Prunus domestica) is thought to be natural hybrid between a sloe (Prunus spinosa) and a cherry-plum (Prunus cerasifera). Although these days most hybrids are developed in university-led research programmes, they are not genetically modified (GMOs) - the process is still based on taking pollen from one variety and pollinating another in the hope of producing a new variety with the desired mix of characteristics.

Apricots are a particular focus in the development of new inter-specific fruit varieties because they naturally produce larger fruits than cherries or plums, and will easily cross-pollinate with them.


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