Pipestone Plum (Spring 2027)

Overview

Pipestone was selected in 1928 and released in 1942 by the University of Minnesota Fruit Breeding Farm at Excelsior. Its parentage is Burbank, a Japanese plum (Prunus salicina), crossed with Wolf, a hardy native American plum. It belongs to the Japanese by American hybrid line Minnesota started in 1908, and no European plum is involved. Over 80 years later, people are still growing this hardy, tasty, yellow-fleshed plum.

Flavor and Fruit Characteristics

When we tried Pipestone several years ago, we were taken aback at their size—most coming in slightly under 2" in diameter. And their flavor was really good: sweet yellow flesh with slightly tart skin. They ripened in early September for us in Missoula.

Cold Hardiness

Even when some of the Italian plums in town—which are typically fairly hardy—had suffered tip damage, Pipestone didn’t show any signs of damage. We’ve seen Pipestone growing in places that can hit -38°F, like a cold part of Stevensville in the Bitterroot. There wasn’t any noticeable damage on the tree after it saw those temps on 1/12/2024.

In short, Pipestone is a super-productive, tasty plum that we know has survived down to -38°F. Some even list it as surviving down to -50°F, although we don’t have direct experience with that ourselves—we just haven’t seen any trees planted where it gets that cold.

Spring 2027 Availability

These plums come in several different rootstock/sizes for Spring 2027. They are either on Native plum, which is likely slightly hardier, and tends to produce a semi-dwarf tree in our dry, alkaline soils and harsh climate. However, key word there is 'tends'. We have found that there is some natural variation in the size of Native Plum as a rootstock (and in general as a stand along tree) as these plants are grown from seed. However, the other rootstock we have grafted Pipestone onto is Prairie Red, which is far more uniform according to Dan Sheild, produces a semi-dwarf tree, and is hardy to around -50F.