Fruits as Ornamentals

by Marvin Pritts

Many trees that produce edible fruits: cherries, peaches, plums, pears, quince, persimmon, pawpaw, etc. Of all of these, you are likely to have the greatest success with plums. Except for black knot, they are relatively free of pests. There are many different varieties of plums with exquisite flavors.

Beach plums are small in stature and produce a profusion of flowers in spring.

My favorite plums, however, are the old-fashioned gages that are rather small, but very flavorful (e.g. Golden Gage). They put on a spectacular floral display in spring.

Dependable dwarfing rootstocks are difficult to find for peaches, cherries and pears, so these plants may grow rather large. In addition, they are more susceptible to pests than most other fruiting plants, so may require spraying to achieve high quality fruits in most years. However, the fruit is delicious and colorful.

Peach	Sour cherry	Apricot	Pear
Quince	Asian pear	Persimmon	Kousa dogwood