Czar plum
A popular and easy to grow culinary plum.
Czar is a large dark black/purple early-season plum, with good astringency and useful for culinary purposes. It can also be eaten fresh if you leave it to get fully ripe. The blossom is a notable characteristic, being unusually large for a plum.
The Victorian fruit enthusiast and author Robert Hogg was sent some samples in August 1874 by the growers, Rivers of Sawbridgeworth. This was the year of its first fruiting. Hogg subsequently rated it as an "excellent plum". Rivers named it Czar in honour of the Czar of Russia, who visited England that year.
Czar soon become a popular garden plum in English gardens, being easy and reliable to grow (thanks in part to blossom which has some frost resistance), and producing good crops. Although the flavour is not necessarily the best, it is one of the earliest culinary plums in the season. The tree can also grow in partial shade and is hardy enough to tolerate north-facing situations.
Summary
- Species: Prunus domestica
- Parentage: Prince Englebert fertilised by Rivers' Early Prolific
- Origin: United Kingdom
- Introduced: 1874
- Developed by: Rivers of Sawbridgeworth
- Orange Pippin Cultivar ID: 125000
Identification
- Fruit colour: Purple
- Flesh colour: Yellow
- Fruit size: Very large
- Fruit shape: Oval / round
- Stone clinging?: Free stone
Using
- Good for eating fresh
- Good for cooking
- Flavour quality: Average
- Ripening period: Early-Mid season Early August
- Use / keeping: 1 week
Growing
- Cropping: Heavy
- Flowering group: 3
- Fertility: Self-fertile
- Vigour: Average growth
- Gardening skill: Very easy
- Attractive tree
- Attractive blossom
- Attractive fruit
- Frost-resistant blossom
- Shade tolerant
- General disease resistance: Average
Climate
- Suitable for temperate climates
- Tolerates cold winters
- Suitable for NW. Scotland?: Yes
- Suitable for N. England?: Yes A good plum for difficult locations
Other qualities
- RHS Award of Garden Merit 1993
Disease resistance
- Bacterial canker Pseudomonas syringae - Some resistance
- Silverleaf Chondrostereum purpureum - Some susceptibility
Relationships to other varieties
Offspring of this variety:
Fruit tree register
Do you have a tree of this variety in your garden or orchard? If so please register the details here and contribute to our international register of fruit trees.
The following Czar trees have been registered - click the name to view more details of each tree.
You can also view these trees on a map.
United Kingdom
- Andy in SURREY, lONDON
- Anja Britton in NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
- Anne Lambert in BALLYCASTLE, CO.ANTRIM
- Anne Lambert in BALLYCASTLE, CO.ANTRIM
- Clifford Cain in Doncaster, SOUTH YORKSHIRE
- Nickkk in OLDHAM, LANCASHIRE
- Peter Tyler in EYE, SUFFOLK
- Philip Wray in ANDOVER, HAMPSHIRE
- Rhiannon Harrington in READING, BERKSHIRE
- Stuart Logan in NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE
Ireland
- Ute Bohnsack in KILFENORA, CLARE
Latest Spring blossom records for this variety
2012 season
- 21st April 2012 - tree owned by Nickkk in OLDHAM, United Kingdom
- 13th April 2012 - tree owned by Peter in EYE, United Kingdom
Record your blossom dates in our Fruit Tree Register - more >>.
Latest harvest records for this variety
2012 season
Mature heights for Czar trees
This table shows the likely mature height for a Czar tree taking into account the vigor of the variety, the rootstock, and soil conditions.
| Rootstock | Soil quality | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poor | Below average | Average | Above average | Very good | |
| Pixy | 5.6 ft 1.7 m |
7.0 ft 2.1 m |
8.4 ft 2.6 m |
10.5 ft 3.2 m |
12.6 ft 3.9 m |
| St.Julien | 7.0 ft 2.1 m |
8.8 ft 2.7 m |
10.5 ft 3.2 m |
13.1 ft 4.0 m |
15.8 ft 4.8 m |
| Brompton | 11.2 ft 3.4 m |
14.0 ft 4.3 m |
16.8 ft 5.2 m |
21.0 ft 6.4 m |
25.2 ft 7.7 m |
From an idea by N. Buck - more details.
Plum, gage, damson trees
The following fruit tree nurseries offer Czar plum trees for sale:
-
Orange Pippin Fruit Trees (UK)
United Kingdom Supplier's website >>
Where to buy plums to eat
No orchards have registered as growing this variety. If you grow this and want to register please go to our Orchard Registration form.
Rate this variety for flavor