Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Description:

This underrated multi-stemmed feature shrub is very deserving of greater use, with its cheery pink flowers in spring and blend of fall colors; very hardy, a fruitless variety, makes an excellent substitute for a flowering cherry tree, needs full sun

Ornamental Features

Muckle Plum is covered in stunning clusters of lightly-scented hot pink flowers along the branches in early spring, which emerge from distinctive cherry red flower buds before the leaves. It has dark green deciduous foliage. The pointy leaves turn an outstanding orange in the fall. The smooth black bark adds an interesting dimension to the landscape.

Landscape Attributes

Muckle Plum is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Muckle Plum is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• General Garden Use

Planting & Growing

Muckle Plum will grow to be about 15 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 10 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 2 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 30 years.

This shrub should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.