By far the most popular plum variety in the UK, dating from the Victorian era, and well-known for heavy crops of very attractive plum-coloured fruit.
Victoria really excels as a culinary plum. It cooks to a distinctive pink/orange puree which makes very good jam and a good-flavoured filling for pies and crumbles. The flavour has a good sweet/sharp balance, and there is often a note of almond in the background.
Victoria plums are sometimes considered inferior to other dessert plum varieties for eating fresh. However this assumption is probably based on the poor flavour of shop-bought Victoria plums, which are usually picked far too early. If you want to eat them rather than cook with them the trick with Victoria is to leave the plums on the tree until they are fully ripe - the skins will start to become a darker red rather than the more usual orange flushed colour. At this point the flavour should not disappoint.
This combination of excellent culinary qualities along with good flavour for eating fresh makes Victoria one of the most versatile plum varieties for the UK grower.
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Delivery period: Pot-grown trees can be delivered from September onwards. Bare-root trees can be delivered from mid-November onwards. Within those periods you can specify your preferred month of delivery during the checkout process. It is best to order as soon as you can to ensure items are reserved for you.
*Mature heights: Height shown is the approximate height of the tree when mature (after 5-10 years), not the height when supplied. See photos of trees as supplied. Actual mature heights may vary considerably dependent on your local conditions and training and pruning regime.
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Victoria is self-fertile and does not need a pollination partner, although fruiting may be improved if there is a compatible tree of a different variety nearby. Since it flowers in the middle of the blossom season it can be pollinated by most other plum trees.
Our online pollination checker lists suitable pollination partners for this variety.
More advice about pollination.
Victoria is easy to grow but there are a couple of problems to look out for. Firstly it can be susceptible to silver leaf and bacterial canker, the two classic plum diseases. Bacterial canker is more prevalent in wetter climates and not likely to be much of an issue in drier regions. Silver leaf is a fungal disease and trees are most at risk in winter, so for this reason never prune a Victoria plum (or any plum variety) in winter, always wait until early summer - or preferably try to avoid pruning at all. Inspite of these potential issues, Victoria plum trees usually grow enthusiastically and tend to shrug off most problems.
On the plus side, Victoria blossom is fairly resistant to frost. It has quite a wide climate range and provided you can give it a sheltered spot will grow successfully as far north as Aberdeen. It produces a lot of pollen and is a useful pollinator of other mid-season flowering plum varieties.
Left un-trained, most plum trees will grow into a standard tree-shape, which is nevertheless not the best mechanical structure for supporting the heavy crops which some varieties - notably Victoria - are capable of. A Victoria plum with a branch broken under the weight of fruit is an all too-common sight. This problem can be avoided by encouraging the tree to grow as a shorter-stemmed bush with wide-spreading branches, and then making sure that the fruitlets are thinned during May. The remaining plums will be larger and have a more concentrated flavour.
Planting instructions.
Pruning instructions.
Sussex, UK. 1840s.
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