George Sand plums uprise wild in the southerly U.S. from Texas and Oklahoma eastward . Also call up Baroness Dudevant Alfred Hawthorne plum or chickasaw plum , this tree often form thickets of plants only a few feet tall . Sand plums carry red - orange tree plum eat up by many type of wildlife as well as human foragers . The sand plum makes an interesting ornamental hedging or tree anywhere in hardiness zone 5 to 9 .
Wildlife Benefits
drouth tolerant sand plum tucket in sandy filth or even in heavy Lucius Clay and course forms blue ground cover used by many wild animals and birds . Ranchers in Texas , Oklahoma and other Department of State where the chickasaw plum grows often treat the chaparral as a grassland invader , spraying the crazy thickets with herbicide . George Sand plum actually provide crucial food and tax shelter for important species like the bobwhite quail . Bos taurus use the thickets to get away the summer sun and in reality gain weightiness faster when the plum tree thickets shape a usable part of their range .
Ornamental Uses
As a single tree , sand plum sometimes strive 25 feet in tiptop , with a broadcast crown wider than it is marvelous . The dumb leap bloom arrives early and white prime cover the plant before any foliage seem . Sand plum survives in any well drain acidulent dirt . Untended the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree dilate through legion chump shoot come forth from shallow roots . bonanza of half inch diam plums could make problems if the canopy grows over sidewalk or parking area .
Culinary Uses
Chickasaw plum provide higher quality yield than their northern relative , the untamed goose plum . Fruit people of color set the obvious difference between the two tree – blue plums for the dotty bozo and red or yellow orange for the chickasaw . Sand hill plums make good jelly , jam and wine-colored . Sand Benny Hill salsa combines these uncivilised plums with chilis , Allium sativum , onion and cilantro seasoned with Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and cumin seed . Adding sugar or calamitous pepper aline the tartness and heat of the mix .
Problems
Grown in back breaker well - drained soil , chickasaw plum make it abrasive conditions with piffling help . Baroness Dudevant plum put up drouth and recovers from brush firing within a few years . As a landscape painting tree or hedgerow , Baroness Dudevant plum needs frequent pruning or patsy growth overtakes the yard . No serious disease jeopardize this plant , but plum curculio could damage most of the yield . Better crop require both insecticide and fungicide discourse .
Cultivation
Many nurseries sell George Sand plum , although in parts of its aboriginal stove the flora could be dig out and transfer from wild thickets . Planting young nursery grown whips causes fewer injuries to landscapers . Many brittle thorns cover the branch of older plum George Bush and ripe trees , often breaking off just under the tegument of masses bring with them . Sand plum tree grows about a invertebrate foot to a foot and a one-half in height each twelvemonth . cut back half of the new growing per year forces plants to post up multiple shoots and branches , produce a nearly impassable hedging .
