Spring 2025Order now for delivery from week commencing 31st March.
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Denniston's Superb plum trees

Prunus domestica
Denniston's Superb plums
Denniston's Superb is listed in the RHS Plants for Pollinators
  • Picking season: Mid
  • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
  • Flowering group: 2

The small round green fruits of Denniston's Superb look like typical green gages, and have the rich gage-like flavor. However, illustrating how ill-defined the boundary between European plum and gage is, it is now generally considered to be a true European plum, on the basis of its upright growth habit and generally reliable productivity.

These niceties need not both the gardener - if you want a green gage without the fussy demands of some other green gages, this is the one to choose.

Denniston's Superb also has particularly attractive blossom, with larger flowers than most other plum trees.

Rated by the Victorian writer Hogg as "a first-rate dessert plum".

Denniston's Superb plum 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 VVA-1 rootstock£62.00< 5 in stock
    Grown for us by Frank P Matthews nursery
    Medium tree (2m-3m after 10 years)
    Out of stock
    Please try next season
  • PG22-year bush-trained 12L pot-grown tree St. Julien rootstock£60.50
    Grown for us by Frank P Matthews nursery
    Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)

Bare-root

  • BR12-year bush-trained bare-root treeVVA-1 rootstock£48.50
    Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)
    Out of stock
    Please try next season
  • BR21-year bare-root treeSt. Julien rootstock£38.75
    Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)
    Out of stock
    Please try next season
  • BR32-year bush-trained bare-root treeSt. Julien rootstock£47.50< 5 in stock
    Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)
    Out of stock
    Please try next season
  • BR42-year half-standard bare-root treeSt. Julien rootstock£51.00
    Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years)
    Out of stock
    Please try next season
  • BR51-year bare-root treeBrompton rootstock£41.25
    Very large tree (4m-7m after 10 years)
    Out of stock
    Please try next season

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 31st March

Delivery charges

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

Growing and Training

Although the round green fruit resembles a green gage, Denniston's Superb grows more like a plum tree - upright, quite vigorously, and with good disease resistance. The long whippy branches soon adopt a weeping habit when loaded with fruit.

Denniston's Superb produces a lot of pollen over a long period in the earlier part of the plum blossom season, and is therefore an excellent pollinator for other early and mid-season flowering plum varieties. If you are familiar with the flowering time of Victoria plum trees in your area, you will find that Denniston's Superb is in peak flower a week-to-10 days ahead.

Recommended pollinators for Denniston's Superb plum trees

Denniston's Superb is self-fertile, so you do not need another variety to pollinate it to produce fruit. However you are likely to get a better crop if you plant any of the following pollinator varieties nearby. If you are not sure about pollination requirements don't hesitate to ask us. More pollinators >

  • Pollinator Victoria
    Victoria
    Victoria is the definitive English plum, attractive fruit, good for eating, outstanding flavour for cooking.
  • Pollinator Opal
    Opal
    Opal is an early plum variety with a good flavour, self-fertile and very easy to grow.
  • Pollinator Marjorie's Seedling
    Marjorie's Seedling
    Marjorie's Seedling is an easy to grow, late-season, heavy cropping purple/black plum.
  • Pollinator Herman
    Herman
    Herman is one of the best quality early-season plum varieties, blue/purple with yellow flesh.
  • Pollinator Avalon
    Avalon
    Avalon is a large mid-season red/purple plum, similar to Victoria, with a very good flavour.

History

Raised by Mr Denniston of Albany, New York, USA in the 19th century.


Denniston's Superb characteristics

Growing

  • Gardening skillBeginner
  • Self-fertilitySelf-fertile
  • Flowering group2
  • Pollinating othersGood
  • Climate suitabilityTemperate climates

Using

  • Picking seasonMid
  • CroppingGood
  • Keeping (of fruit)1-3 days
  • Food usesEating freshDual purpose

Problems

  • Disease resistanceGood

Identification

  • Country of originUnited States
  • Period of origin1850 - 1899
  • Blossom colourWhite
  • Fruit colourGreen - light

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 plum trees

Eating plums, also known as dessert plums, offer some of the sweetest flavours possible in the temperate garden, rivaling the best of tropical fruits. We particularly rate Avalon, Oullins Gage, Cambridge Gage, Coe's Golden Drop, Old Green Gage, and Opal.

There are several things you can do, as the gardener, to enhance the flavours of these sweet fruits. Firstly, try to plant the tree in full sun - because it is sunlight that ripens the fruits and ensures the maximum sweetness. Secondly, thin the fruitlets in June. To be fair, thinning plum fruitlets is a tedious job, but it is well worth doing because most plum varieties set too many fruits, which leads to poorer fruit size and bland flavours. So if you think your tree has over-set, carefully prune off the developing fruitlets, and don't be surprised if you end up removing half of them or even more - the tree will reward you later on.


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