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| I have a pair of Thundercloud Plum Trees for about 4-5 yrs now that flower beautifully in the spring and get loads of little plums. My question is why do the leaves turn greenish instead of staying burgundy (like the others on my street).
My local garden center took a look at my photos and a cutting and said that they seem perfectly healthy and are probably just some variety of plum, not thundercloud. Is there anything I can do to get them to keep the rich red coloration or can anyone offer any other insight? Thanks very much! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 22, 12 at 15:22
| Thunderclouds hold their leaf color very reliably. I'd tend to agree with your nursery staff that you have a different form of flowering plum/your Thunderclouds were mislabeled. Since the coloring is directly related to the genetics of the specific cultivar, there's not much you can do to change it. Other than replant with known named purple-leafed form. |
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| Thank you for taking the time to reply gardengal48. They aren't what we expected but they look nice enough and are healthy so here they'll stay :) |
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| Either they are not 'Thundercloud' or your climate is fading them out. Even Portland, Oregon is hot enough that in a municipal demonstration planting there a set of 'Thundercloud' was seen one summer to be not holding up as well as some nearby 'Krauter's Vesuvius', which was introduced originally with the idea that it had superior color retention. 'Thundercloud' is one of those widely familiar names that has by now probably been misapplied to multiple forms not connected with the original introduction. There may have even been spontaneous roadside seedlings grafted from and used to build up wholesale quantities put on the market as 'Thundercloud', because that was the name for a single-flowered, purple-leaved cherry plum known to parties doing so. Such things do go on. |
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| At this point I believe they probably just aren't true Thunderclouds. Sadly, this was the only time I did not hand pick something going to be planted and well, lesson learned! Thanks again for the replies |
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| 'Thundercloud' is one of those widely familiar names that has by now probably been misapplied to multiple forms not connected with the original introduction. Isn't sad that this might be going on all over the place with many introductions of many species. A home improvement of all places had 'Bloodgood', 'Fireglow' and 'Wolff' in inventory last year. They all looked the same to me and I wouldn't doubt if they were all 'Bloodgood'. Sorry that was mildly off topic. |
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