Coes Golden Drop Plum Trees

Prunus Coe's Golden Drop

When you bite into a really delicious yellow plum from the market, there is a good chance that it is a Coe's Golden Drop. The large, oval fruit is radiant yellow inside and out with a gorgeous flavour that has a hint of apricot. They are a venerable English plum and have been sold commercially here for two hundred years. They have lovely firm flesh and are equally good right off the branch or preserved as a jam or dried as a prune.

Browse our range of plum trees or see the variety of fruit trees.

Golden Drop's History and Parentage

In the early 1720s, Sir William Gage of Bury St Edmunds received a shipment of plum trees with very sweet green fruit from France. Somewhere along the line, these acquired the now famous name, Green Gages. Jervaise Coe became the estate's gardener and during the late 1700's used the Green Gage to create his Golden Drop and other varieties. In this case, he crossed it with Dame Aubert or White Magnum Bonum, a good-sized, juicy yellow plum that lacked flavour. It proved to have the best of both fruits and is grown by farmers to this day. It is one of the most reliable and easiest to grow plum trees in the UK.

Pollination guide for Coe's Golden Drop Plums

It is not self-fertile and requires the pollen from another plum tree that is in flower at the same time, from mid-April. Plum trees flower for a short time, typically 10-14 days, so the match has to be precise. We recommend the especially tasty Denniston's Superb which is in bloom at the same time. You can get picking by late September.

Care must be taken when planting plum trees, they are quite particular with regard to positioning. And don't forget that plums are ONLY EVER pruned in summer. 

Please note that all our Coe's Golden Drop plum trees are on St Julien A rootstocks unless otherwise described.