Scrub Plum

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, like our beach plum, about a foot and a half a year. It is a long-lived, much-branched shrub, usually 3 to 4 feet tall and at most about 6, on a gnarled trunk half buried in sand. In the wild it resprouts from the roots after fire and flowers most heavily in the second year after a burn.

Small white flowers with yellow stamens open on bare twigs from late January into March, before the leaves. The fruit is a small plum half an inch to an inch long that ripens dull red to soft reddish purple from March into May. Wildlife eat the fruit and seeds. Its small, finely toothed leaves mostly drop by late summer.

Its home is fire-kept scrub and sandhills on deep white or yellow sand, with sand pine, Florida rosemary, scrub hickory, longleaf pine and turkey oak. About 64 wild populations remain, most of them small, and seedlings are rarely found. Poor seed set, seed-eating insects and low germination all hold back new plants.

How to grow Scrub Plum

Scrub plum needs full sun and a deep, dry sand that drains fast, like the white and yellow sands of its native ridge. It tolerates drought and fire but not shade. Its spiny twigs are sharp, so keep it back from paths. Set plants 4 feet apart, and keep each one 3 feet from a wall. It is small enough to grow within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, in winter before the flowers open, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Sow the cleaned pits outdoors in fall, as other plums are sown, under a thin layer of leaf litter to keep them moist. Even in field trials only about one seed in ten came up, so sow plenty.

Water weekly through the first summer only, and after that let the rain do the rest. Where rabbits or deer are common, cage young plants for their first two years. Keep taller shrubs and trees from shading it, since it needs open sun.

Scrub plum sets little good seed with its own pollen, so plant two or more from different seed for fruit. Each plant carries flowers with both male and female parts and flowers that are male only. Sawfly larvae and plum curculio grubs eat many young fruits and seeds before they ripen. Saplings and seed are shipped only in state and otherwise pickup only.