Flowering Plum

Quick question all,

Yesterday, walking through my local home depot, I saw they had moderately sized flowering plum trees. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the species, but it has dark red foliage , pink to white blooms, and produces small, dark red fruits. As a child I had one in the yard that was sadly removed when I was very young. Does anyone have experience with them, or know how well they respond to severe pruning, including trunk chops? Thanks.

Brent Waston has been selling these for use in bonsai for years.
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/

I believe they are recommended for larger than shohin sizes due to large leaves. The are supposed to be nice, I just picked up a small one with double flowers for myself from Brent. The red leaf plums are susceptible to a number of the diseases that can affect apples, cherries and other members of that family. Check the pest & diseases section of Brent's article on crab apples, it will apply to flowering plums too.
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/crabappl.htm

You should be able to turn out a lovely tree with this species.

Hi cmd5235,

I know this sp, and I have one in my collection
I bought it in early spring this year, its trunk dia. was approx. 7-8 cm, and its height was approx. 3 meters.
There were no branches at lower sections of trunk. I chopped its trunk down to approx. 35-40 cm, and now I have 10-15 shoots just in 2 months.
Also, length of each new branch is now 70-75 cm
I can take its photo for you, if you are interested?

Taner

Yeah absolutely! I saw a few at Home Depot- nice trunks and roots, but certainly would need drastic trunk pruning