{"title":"Prunus (Cherries, Plums \u0026 Laurels)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrunus\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the great sprawling genera of the temperate world, holding the cherries, plums, apricots, almonds, and the evergreen laurel cherries inside a single botanical family argument. What the group shares is a five-petalled flower of disarming simplicity and a stone fruit at the end of the season. What the group does not share is a calendar: \u003cem\u003ePrunus mume\u003c\/em\u003e, the Japanese flowering apricot, opens spice-scented flowers in the thin light of January, while the native plums wait for the first warm week of spring and the laurel cherries bloom quietly under evergreen leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor Southern gardens the useful split is between the flowering kinds and the working ones. \u003cem\u003ePrunus mume\u003c\/em\u003e 'Peggy Clarke' and the dwarf \u003cem\u003ePrunus incisa\u003c\/em\u003e 'Kojo no mai' are grown for the flowers and for the branch structure that carries them; \u003cem\u003ePrunus americana\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePrunus angustifolia\u003c\/em\u003e, and the hog plum \u003cem\u003ePrunus umbellata\u003c\/em\u003e are thicket-forming natives that feed birds and carry a fruit worth a jelly; \u003cem\u003ePrunus caroliniana\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ePrunus lusitanica\u003c\/em\u003e are dense broadleaf evergreens for screening and clipping. One honest caution runs across the genus: leaves and stones carry cyanogenic compounds, so keep prunings well away from livestock.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"prunus-incisa-kojo-no-mai","title":"Prunus incisa 'Kojo no mai'","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Kojo no mai' is a small cherry with a large personality, a dwarf Fuji cherry grown as much for the winter silhouette as for the spring flowers. The stiff, twiggy branches grow in sharp zig-zags, crooking this way and that into a dense, architectural little bush, and in early spring, before the leaves, those bare zig-zag stems line themselves with single flowers, pink in bud and opening to white and blush. The Japanese name translates, fittingly, as flight of butterflies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe parent species, Prunus incisa, is the Fuji cherry, a dainty early bloomer from the mountains around Mount Fuji, and the epithet incisa points to the deeply cut, doubly toothed leaves. 'Kojo no mai' keeps all the charm at a fraction of the size, slow and compact, reaching only four to eight feet after many years, and finishes the season with a fine show of orange, yellow, and red autumn color before the leaves drop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFew flowering cherries suit a small garden so well. The dwarf scale and the sculptural zig-zag framework make 'Kojo no mai' a natural for a courtyard, a patio, a rock garden, or a large container, and the plant is a longtime favorite for bonsai, where the crooked branches and early bloom come into their own. Four seasons of interest come in a plant you can stand beside: winter structure, spring flower, summer leaf, autumn fire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrow 'Kojo no mai' in full sun to part shade in any decent, well-drained soil, hardy through USDA zones 5 to 8 and thoroughly cold-tough. Little pruning is needed beyond shaping, and when you do cut, do it in summer rather than winter, since the flowering cherries are prone to silver leaf and canker through wet dormant wounds. For the gardener short on space but long on appetite for a real ornamental, this is one of the best small trees going.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePhotos courtesy of Insomniac Gardener and The Plant Pot.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057946366067,"sku":"PRUN-INCI-KOJO-NO-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Prunus_Kojonomai_PlantPot2.jpg?v=1784336488"},{"product_id":"prunus-mume-peggy-clarke","title":"Prunus mume ‘Peggy Clarke’","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrunus mume\u003c\/em\u003e 'Peggy Clarke' is a selection of the Japanese flowering apricot, a medium-sized deciduous tree grown above all for showy, deeply fragrant blossoms that open in the depths of winter when few other trees are in flower. 'Peggy Clarke' bears rich rose-pink, double, cup-shaped flowers, ruffled and fragrant, crowded along the bare branches in late winter and early spring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Japanese flowering apricot, or ume, is a great and traditional favorite in Japan, celebrated for well over a thousand years, and is becoming steadily more popular in the southern United States. Many named forms exist, varying in flower color from white through pink to deep red; 'Peggy Clarke' is prized for the depth and warmth of the rose-pink doubles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSmall, round, apricot-like fruits, about an inch and a half across, follow in late spring and early summer, ripening yellowish-green, too tart and hard to eat fresh but traditionally used for preserves and pickles in East Asian cooking. The ovate, serrated leaves are bright green in spring, hold through summer, and turn golden-yellow in fall, after which the dark, elegant branching carries the tree through winter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrow 'Peggy Clarke' in an open, sunny site with good, well-drained soil, and site where the powerful winter fragrance can be met near a path or a door. Prune right after flowering, since bloom comes on the previous year's wood, and avoid low frost pockets that can nip the early flowers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057946562675,"sku":"PRUN-MUME-PEGG-CLAR-01G","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/prunus_mume_Peggy_Clark_Woodlanders.jpg?v=1738024388"},{"product_id":"prunus-caroliniana","title":"Prunus caroliniana","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrunus caroliniana\u003c\/em\u003e, the Carolina cherry laurel, is a fast, dense broadleaf evergreen native to the coastal plain of the southeastern United States, from North Carolina to Texas. The glossy, deep green, finely toothed leaves and tight, upright habit make the tree one of the South's most useful evergreen screens, and the crushed foliage carries the sharp almond, maraschino-cherry scent that marks the genus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn late winter and early spring the branches carry dense, upright racemes of small, creamy-white, lightly fragrant flowers, a welcome early nectar source for bees. Small black cherries follow through summer and fall, relished by mockingbirds, cedar waxwings, and other songbirds, which spread the seed freely, so volunteer seedlings are common where birds perch.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs an evergreen the Carolina cherry laurel makes a superb tall hedge, screen, or windbreak, and takes well to being limbed up into a handsome small specimen tree with smooth gray bark. One caution belongs with the praise: the leaves, twigs, and seeds contain cyanogenic compounds and are poisonous to people and livestock if eaten in quantity, so site away from pastures and keep the clippings out of reach of grazing animals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrow the tree in full sun to part shade and well-drained, acid soil, and expect heat, drought, and salt to be taken in stride once established. Shear for a formal hedge or leave loose for an informal screen, remove basal suckers to hold a single trunk, and pair with other Southern broadleaf evergreens where fast, dependable, deer-resistant cover is wanted.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057946693747,"sku":"PRUN-CARO-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Prunuscaroliniana-CRN_IMG14688.jpg?v=1743011524"},{"product_id":"prunus-lusitanica","title":"Prunus lusitanica","description":"\u003cp\u003ePortugal laurel is the evergreen that quiet, well-run gardens lean on, a dense, glossy, dark-leaved shrub that Hillier's manual once flatly called indispensable. The oval leaves are a deep lustrous green, carried on wine-red petioles and reddish young stems that give the whole plant a warm undertone, and in early summer slender racemes of small, fragrant, creamy-white flowers stand out against the dark foliage before ripening to little cherries that pass from red to near-black.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe species comes from the western edge of Europe, Portugal and Spain, southwestern France, and the Atlantic islands of Macaronesia, and the name lusitanica means of Lusitania, the Roman name for Portugal. In cultivation Portugal laurel earns its keep for a simple reason: the shrub is hardier, more tolerant of chalk and drought, and altogether more refined than the coarser common cherry laurel, and takes the shears beautifully.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat combination makes the plant one of the great hedging and screening evergreens, as happy clipped into a formal wall or a lollipop standard as left to grow into a loose, twenty-foot specimen. The fragrant flowers draw bees in early summer, and birds strip the dark fruits in autumn and sow them about. For year-round structure, a windbreak, a background to brighter planting, or a handsome specimen, few broadleaf evergreens are more useful.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne honest caution comes with the virtues. Like the other cherry laurels, Portugal laurel carries cyanogenic compounds in the leaves and seeds; the foliage is poisonous if eaten and gives off a bitter-almond smell of cyanide when crushed, so keep clippings away from children, pets, and livestock, and never burn them in a closed space. Otherwise the plant is easy, thriving in sun or part shade on almost any well-drained soil through USDA zones 7 to 9, drought-tolerant once established, and forgiving of hard pruning.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057946824819,"sku":"PRUN-LUSI-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Prunuslusitanica.jpg?v=1784336656"},{"product_id":"prunus-angustifolia","title":"Prunus angustifolia","description":"\u003cp\u003eA native plum with a longer human history than any other fruit in North America. \u003cem\u003ePrunus angustifolia\u003c\/em\u003e, the Chickasaw plum, also called Cherokee plum, sand plum, sandhill plum, or Florida sand plum depending on the part of the range you are standing in, was actively cultivated by Indigenous peoples across the southeastern and central United States long before European contact. The Chickasaw, Cherokee, and several other nations carried the species in their orchards and food gardens, dried the fruit for winter storage, and almost certainly moved the plant eastward through pre-Columbian trade networks from what botanists now believe to be the species' true origin further west. The species was so deeply associated with Indigenous cultivation by the time European naturalists arrived that the binomial \u003cem\u003eangustifolia\u003c\/em\u003e, narrow leaf, eventually displaced earlier names like \u003cem\u003eP. chicasa\u003c\/em\u003e in formal taxonomy, though the common names kept the tribal attribution. Kansas made the plant its official state fruit in 2022. Few American native fruits carry their human history this visibly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe plant itself is one of the great early-spring trees of the southeastern landscape. From late February through April, well before most other woody plants have leafed out, bare branches erupt into clouds of small white five-petaled flowers, fragrant and swarmed by every emerging pollinator within range. This is one of the most important early nectar sources in the entire eastern flora: the flowers open at the precise moment when overwintering native bees, queen bumble bees, mason bees, and early butterflies emerge from dormancy and need food before almost anything else is blooming. Without early-spring plums and serviceberries, the native bee community has nowhere to go in the gap between the last winter aconites and the first warm-season flowers. Doug Tallamy's research on native-plant ecological value places the genus \u003cem\u003ePrunus\u003c\/em\u003e in the top tier of woody natives nationwide, and \u003cem\u003eP. angustifolia\u003c\/em\u003e hosts more than 380 species of butterfly and moth caterpillars, from the coral hairstreak and eastern tiger swallowtail to the cecropia, polyphemus, imperial, and promethea silkmoths, a list that reads like a roll call of the eastern lepidoptera.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fruit follows in midsummer. Half-inch drupes ripen from yellow to red, cherry-like in color and slightly tart in the flesh, the kind of small wild fruit that needs cooking to come into its own. Generations of southerners have made Chickasaw plum jelly, preserves, pies, and wine; the fruit dries well, cooks beautifully, and carries a flavor that improved-orchard plums have largely lost to commercial breeding. Birds, foxes, raccoons, and box turtles work the ripening fruit hard, which is why most wild stands lose their crop within days of full ripeness, so pick early or share generously.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe plants offered here are seedlings from a particular late-flowering, late-fruiting clone growing in Aiken County, South Carolina. Late timing is meaningful: it shifts the bloom past the worst frost windows, extends the bloom and fruiting periods relative to the species' typical schedule, and gives gardeners a slightly different window of wildlife support and harvest. The parent clone has been observed at Woodlanders for years, and the seedlings carry forward the genetic tendency toward later phenology while introducing the variability needed for good cross-pollination and resilience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057946955891,"sku":"PRUN-ANGU-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1186.jpg?v=1720140280"},{"product_id":"prunus-laurocerasus-parkway","title":"Prunus laurocerasus 'Parkway'","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe English laurel is a large broadleaf evergreen shrub grown for bold, glossy foliage, spires of small white flowers, and, at times, small cherry-like red-to-black fruits. The species is variable, with a number of cultivated forms, and the plant is native to eastern Europe and Asia Minor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe selection Woodlanders offers as 'Parkway' may be the large-leaf form known as 'Magnoliifolia'. Our stock was propagated from a large old specimen growing along one of the historic parkways of Aiken, South Carolina, and carries that local pedigree forward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Parkway' makes an excellent large evergreen shrub for a semi-shaded site with well-drained, acid soil, useful as a tall hedge, a screen, or a bold specimen. The glossy leaves take shearing well and give year-round structure. Like others in the genus, the leaves and seeds contain cyanogenic compounds and are poisonous if eaten, so site away from grazing animals and keep the clippings out of reach.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrow in full sun to part shade and well-drained, acid soil, water through the first season to establish, and shear in late winter or lightly through the season to hold a formal hedge. Give shelter from harsh, drying winter wind at the cold edge of the range.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057947152499,"sku":"PRUN-LAUR-PARK-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-191.jpg?v=1720140289"},{"product_id":"prunus-umbellata","title":"Prunus umbellata","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrunus umbellata\u003c\/em\u003e, the flatwoods plum, is a picturesque small deciduous tree native to well-drained soils across the southeastern United States. Where the Chickasaw plum forms suckering thickets, the flatwoods plum grows as a single, gnarled, small tree with rough, dark bark and a wide, open crown, an old-field and fence-row character that reads as quietly beautiful in age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn spring the bare branches carry clouds of small white flowers, often aging to pink, a little later than the Chickasaw plum and a welcome early nectar source for bees and the season's first butterflies. The bloom is one of the loveliest sights of the southern early spring, dense and fragrant against the dark bark.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSmall, sour, purple plums follow in summer, tart and puckering fresh but excellent cooked into jelly and preserves, and taken freely by birds, foxes, and other wildlife. The fruit is a traditional country jelly plum across the South, gathered from wild trees for generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrow the flatwoods plum as a small specimen, a wildlife tree, or an anchor in a native or naturalistic planting, in full sun to part shade and well-drained soil. The single-trunk, non-suckering habit makes the plant far easier to place than the thicketing plums, and the gnarled winter silhouette earns a spot even out of leaf. Give room for the open crown, and pair with other native small trees and shrubs at a woodland edge.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057947218035,"sku":"PRUN-UMBE-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1036.jpg?v=1720140291"},{"product_id":"prunus-japonica","title":"Prunus japonica","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrunus japonica\u003c\/em\u003e, the Japanese bush cherry or Japanese almond-cherry, is a compact deciduous shrub grown for an early flood of delicate pink-to-white bloom. Wiry branches carry dense clusters of five-petaled flowers just as the leaves appear, wrapping the low, rounded frame in soft color in early to mid spring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSmall, bright red cherries follow in late summer, round and shiny, tart and slightly astringent, best cooked into preserves and jellies or left for the birds. The narrow, lance-shaped leaves emerge fresh green and turn warm yellow to orange in fall, so the two-to-four-foot shrub earns a place across several seasons.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small shrub for a small space, \u003cem\u003ePrunus japonica\u003c\/em\u003e suits the front of a border, a low informal hedge, a container, or a woodland edge, in full sun to part shade and well-drained soil. Long valued in Japan and dependable in warm climates, the plant performs especially well in southern gardens.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeyond the garden, the seed of \u003cem\u003ePrunus japonica\u003c\/em\u003e is one source of the traditional Chinese herb yu li ren, long used to moisten the bowels. Give the shrub a sunny, well-drained spot, and enjoy an easy, early-flowering plant that feeds the season's first pollinators.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePhoto courtesy of Visions.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057947349107,"sku":"PRUN-JAPO-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/PrunusJaponicaVisionPicturesWoodlanders1.webp?v=1753121842"},{"product_id":"prunus-mume","title":"Prunus mume","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrunus mume\u003c\/em\u003e, the Japanese flowering apricot, is one of the most beloved of all winter-flowering trees, opening almond-scented blossoms in the depths of winter, from soft white to deep pink, on bare branches while the rest of the garden sleeps. In China and Japan the mei or ume has been celebrated in poetry and painting for well over a thousand years as a symbol of resilience and the turning of the year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross the southern United States the flowers open in mid to late winter, sometimes as early as January, filling the cold air with a powerful sweet, honey-almond fragrance that carries far on a still day. Bees and the earliest pollinators find the blooms gratefully, at a moment when almost nothing else is open.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese seedlings come from the celebrated 'Peggy Clarke' and tend toward single flowers. Beyond the bloom, \u003cem\u003ePrunus mume\u003c\/em\u003e is a productive fruit tree: small, round, apricot-like fruits ripen yellow-green with a red blush in late spring and summer, tart and acidic, and made into preserves, pickles, and the famous Japanese umeboshi and ume wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe smoked, dried fruit is also wu mei, one of the oldest herbs of traditional Chinese medicine, recorded nearly two thousand years ago. Grow the tree as a small specimen for a courtyard, a lawn, or a mixed border, in full sun to part shade and fertile, well-drained soil, and prune right after flowering, since bloom comes on the previous year's wood. Site where the winter fragrance can be met near a path or a door.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057947381875,"sku":"PRUN-MUME-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1185.jpg?v=1720140301"},{"product_id":"prunus-americana-white","title":"Prunus americana","description":"\u003cp\u003eBefore European settlement reshaped the eastern landscape, \u003cem\u003ePrunus americana\u003c\/em\u003e was a fixture at the forest edge: thicket-forming, thorny, and extravagantly beautiful in early spring when the plum covered itself in white flowers before the leaves had even stirred. The Lakota knew the plum as \u003cem\u003ekañta\u003c\/em\u003e, the Cherokee as \u003cem\u003egunasdv\u003c\/em\u003e, and across dozens of nations from the Great Plains to the Appalachians the tree was considered a plant of genuine importance. The fruits were eaten fresh, dried into cakes, and worked into pemmican, the dense, calorie-rich mixture of dried meat, fat, and fruit that sustained people through long winters and longer journeys. The inner bark was used medicinally, and the dense, close-grained wood was worked into tools. This was not an ornamental plant in the minds of the people who knew it first. The plum was a resource, in the fullest sense.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat the plum has always been, regardless of who is looking, is spectacular in flower. The blooms open in mid-spring on bare branches, dense, flat-topped clusters of fragrant white flowers that smother the tree before a single leaf appears, feeding native bees and early pollinators at the precise moment they most need foraging. The plums ripen in early summer to clusters of round red fruit, sour-skinned and sweet-fleshed, good fresh and excellent in jams and preserves. Birds find them reliably, and so do people who know to look.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrunus americana\u003c\/em\u003e is a thicket-forming small tree, suckering steadily into dense colonies, occasionally thorny enough to be genuinely impenetrable, and broadly tolerant of difficult conditions. The plum grows across a remarkable range, from Saskatchewan to Florida, which speaks to an adaptability earned over millennia rather than selected for in a nursery. For a plant with deep roots in this continent's ecology, literally and otherwise, this is the tree.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePhoto courtesy of Rick Webb.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42134186819699,"sku":"PRUN-AMER-01G","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/ScreenShot2024-08-03at3.27.46PM.png?v=1722713350"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/prunus.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}