The Armeniaca mume Sieb, colloquially known as the Green Apricot Plum, gets its name from its greenish-white flowers and emerald green branches.
It falls under the category of straight-branch, green-sepaled plums in the classification system of plum blossoms, and is considered a standout variety, bearing the dignified qualities of a gentleman.
This plum blossom variety showcases a rare, large-flower type, with a diameter reaching up to 35cm at full bloom. The outer petals of the flower overlap irregularly, forming a silhouette that resembles a butterfly in flight.
The flower emits a strong fragrance. To date, there are dozens of varieties, including the Large-flower Green Sepal, Single-petal Green Sepal, and Brocade Leaf Green Sepal.
Single-petal, multi-petal, or double-petal flowers, white or light green when first blooming, with a green sepal and green branches without a purple hue.
Main Varieties:Plum Blossom Green Sepal, Variegated Green Sepal, Tower Green Sepal, Long-stamen Green Sepal, Double Green Sepal, Double-petal Green Sepal, Six Green Sepal, Small Green Sepal, Coin Green Sepal, Rice Single Green, Long-stamen Single Green, Single-petal Green Sepal, Early-bloom Green Sepal, Brocade Branch Green Sepal, Brocade Leaf Green Sepal, Late Green Sepal, Long-viewing Green Sepal, Exotic-smell Green Sepal, Laurel, Moon Shadow, Single-layer Green Sepal, Large-wheel Green Sepal, Bean Green, Plum Mountain Green Sepal, Long-thread Green Sepal, Large-flower Green Sepal, Brocade Leaf Late Green, and others.
The Green Apricot Plum, colloquially known as the Green Plum, gets its name from its green sepal, white flowers, and emerald green branches. It falls under the category of straight-branch, green-sepaled plums in the classification system of plum blossoms, and is considered a standout variety.
The original species is a small tree or sometimes a shrub, between 4-10 meters tall. The bark is light gray or greenish, smooth. The branches are green, smooth, and hairless. The leaves are ovate or elliptical, 4-8 cm long, and 2.5-5 cm wide.
The leaf apex is tail-pointed, the base is broad wedge-shaped to round, and often has small sharp serrations along the leaf edge. The leaves are gray-green in color.
When young, they have short soft hairs on both sides, which gradually fall off as they mature, or only remain in the vein axils beneath. The leaf stalk is 1-2 cm long, hairy when young, and falls off as it ages, often with glands.
The flowers are either solitary or sometimes grow in pairs within a single bud, 2-2.5 cm in diameter, strongly fragrant, and bloom before the leaves. The flower stalk is short, about 1-3 mm long, often hairless.
The sepal is usually red-brown, but in some varieties, it’s green or purple-green. The sepal tube is wide bell-shaped, hairless or sometimes with short soft hairs. The sepal lobes are ovate or nearly round, with a rounded tip.
The petals are inversely ovate, white to pink. The stamens are short or slightly longer than the petals. The ovary is densely covered with soft hairs, and the style is short or slightly longer than the stamens.
The fruit is nearly spherical, 2-3 cm in diameter, yellow or greenish-white, covered with soft hairs, and tastes sour. The flesh sticks to the stone.
The stone is elliptical, with a rounded top and a small pointed tip, narrowing to a wedge shape at the base, slightly flattened on both sides, with a slightly blunt ventral ridge.
There are obvious longitudinal grooves on both the ventral and dorsal ridges, and the surface has honeycomb-like holes. The flowering period is in winter and spring, and the fruiting period is from May to June.
This deciduous small tree can grow up to 10 meters tall. The trunk is purple-brown with longitudinal streaks. Branches are often thorny, and small branches are green or predominantly green.
The leaves are broadly ovate to ovate, with the tip gradually tapering or tail-pointed. In early spring (February to March), it blooms before the leaves, with flowers growing in the leaf axils of one-year-old branches, either solitary or in pairs, single-petaled or double-petaled, with a subtle fragrance.
The stone fruit is spherical, with a shallow groove on one side, hairy, and ripens in June, turning yellow when ripe. The small branches are green without a purple hue.
This plant prefers sunlight and thrives in environments with abundant sunlight and good ventilation. In overly shaded conditions, the plant’s vigor weakens and it rarely blooms, if at all. It prefers warm climates but is cold-resistant.
It thrives in high humidity and has some drought resistance. It is not demanding about soil conditions but prefers moist, humus-rich sandy loam. In heavy clay soils with poor drainage, it can easily succumb to root rot and die.
Green calyx has its own characteristics. Common pests and diseases of plum blossoms are more likely to occur on Gongfen and Cinnabar plums, but less so on Green calyx plums.
Moreover, due to the robust growth, thick new branches, and full leaf buds of Green calyx, the survival rate of grafting is much higher than other varieties.
However, Green calyx plums have a shortcoming – their flower buds are less frost-resistant, so precautions should be taken to protect the buds from frost during cold spells.
In the south, the plant can be planted directly into the soil, but in colder northern regions, it should be potted and overwintered indoors. Planting can take place any time from after the leaves fall until the buds sprout in the spring.
To increase survival rates, avoid damaging the root system and transplant with a clod of soil. Outdoor planting should be done in a sunny, wind-sheltered spot. For potted plants, use a mix of 3 parts leaf mold, 3 parts garden soil, 2 parts river sand, and 2 parts well-rotted manure.
After planting, water thoroughly once. Place in a shaded spot to recover, then move to a sunny spot for regular maintenance.
The plant prefers warm temperatures and abundant sunlight. Except for apricot plum varieties, which can tolerate temperatures down to -25°C, it is generally hardy to -10°C. It can also tolerate high temperatures and can grow even in conditions up to 40°C.
It grows best in regions with an average annual temperature of 16-23°C. It is highly sensitive to temperature and will bloom when the average spring temperature reaches -5 to 7°C.
During the growing season, watering should be carefully monitored. The soil should be kept moist but not waterlogged or overly dry or wet. Watering should follow the principle of watering when the soil is dry and stopping when it is wet.
Generally, water less on cloudy days or when temperatures are low, otherwise water more. Water twice daily in the summer, once daily in spring and autumn, and thoroughly when the soil is dry in the winter. Fertilizer should also be applied reasonably.
Apply a base fertilizer before planting and add a small amount of monopotassium phosphate. Apply monopotassium phosphate again before flowering, and apply well-rotted cake fertilizer during flowering to supplement nutrition.
In June, apply a compound fertilizer to promote flower bud differentiation. After the leaves fall in autumn, apply an organic fertilizer such as well-rotted manure.
Pruning to shape the plum tree can be done within 20 days after flowering. The natural tree shape should be maintained, removing crossing branches, upright branches, dead branches, and overly dense branches.
Side branches should be cut short to promote lush flowering and leafing. After potting the plum tree, major pruning should be done to prepare for bonsai creation.
Typically, the plum post is used as a base, onto which various plum blossom forms are grafted. Maintain a certain temperature, and the plum blossoms will be in full bloom by the Lunar New Year.
If you want it to flower by May 1, maintain a temperature of 0-5°C and a moist environment. Move it outdoors in early April and place it in a sunny, well-ventilated spot for care, and it should flower by early May.
For potted plum trees, which are typically grown for home decoration, move the plant indoors after it sheds its leaves in winter. Maintain a temperature of 0-5°C, gradually warming to 5-10°C after New Year’s Day.
Ensure the plant receives ample sunlight daily, and regularly spray the branches with water. The water temperature should be close to room temperature.
Grafting is the most commonly used method, followed by cutting and layering, with seeding being the least used. When grafting, seedlings of peach, wild peach, apricot, wild apricot, and plum can be used as rootstocks.
In the South, plums and peaches are commonly used as rootstocks, while in the North, apricots, wild apricots, or wild peaches are preferred. Grafting onto a plum rootstock performs well, especially when grafting an old fruit plum tree onto an ancient plum stump, it is even more suitable.
The grafting methods usually include cleft grafting, whip grafting, side grafting, and inarching, generally carried out after the rootstock sprouts in the spring. Side grafting can also be done in the fall.
Inarching usually involves old plum fruit and young plum trees, which can be done in both spring and fall. Bud grafting is often carried out from June to September, typically using a shield bud graft.
This method is suitable for varieties that root easily, such as cinnabar, palace pink, green calyx, bone red, and plain white pagoda.
Hardwood cuttings are made after the leaves fall in November, choosing strong branches of the current year from young parent plants, cut into lengths of 10-15 cm, the base cut is soaked in 1000-2000 mg/l indolebutyric acid for 5-10 seconds, then inserted into sterilized sandy soil, with the cutting depth being 2/3 of the length of the cutting. After insertion, water thoroughly and cover with a small arch shed for insulation, roots and buds can develop by March of the following year.
Softwood cuttings are generally done from late April to May, selecting the current year’s heel branches, 10-15 cm in length, soaked in 50 mg/l ABT-1 rooting powder for 20 minutes, intermittently sprayed, root quickly, with a high survival rate.
Ordinary layering is generally done in winter dormancy or early spring, taking 1-2 year old sprouts from near the root, girdling about 1 cm wide with a sharp knife, burying 3-4 cm in the soil, covering with soil and adding a brick for pressure, maintaining soil moisture, can be cut off and transplanted separately after the fall.
Air layering is usually used for propagating large seedlings, generally carried out before budding in early spring or after the summer shoots mature, peeling about 1 cm wide ring of bark, using a plastic film wound cylinder to cover the wound, tying it tight 2 cm below, filling in an appropriate amount of sterilized culture soil, making the branch closely contact the soil, tying it up with a rope, cutting it off below the plastic film in the fall after the layer roots, and after removing the plastic film, planting it in a pot with soil.
This method is mainly used for breeding new varieties or rootstocks. The seeds mature in June, after harvest, the seeds are dried, and seeding is divided into spring and autumn seeding.
Generally, the climate in the North is colder, so spring seeding is preferred, and the seeds are stratified with wet sand before seeding around the spring equinox. The climate in the South is warm and humid, so autumn seeding is better.
After 3-4 years of seeding, the seedlings bloom, and after 7-8 years, they reach their peak blooming period.
This plant can be grown in the ground in the southern regions, while in the colder northern areas, it should be potted and kept indoors over winter. The plant can be planted anytime from after the leaves have fallen until before the buds sprout in spring.
To increase the survival rate, avoid damaging the root system and transplant with a clump of soil. For ground planting, choose a location that is wind-sheltered and facing the sun.
For potting, use a mixture of three parts leaf mold, three parts garden soil, two parts river sand, and two parts well-rotted farmyard manure.
After planting, water thoroughly once. Keep the plant in a shaded area for care, and move it to sunlight for normal maintenance once it has resumed growth.
Prefers warm temperatures and abundant sunlight. Apart from the apricot and plum varieties that can withstand -25°C, most can tolerate -10°C. It is heat-resistant and can grow even at 40°C.
It grows best in regions with an average annual temperature of 16-23°C. It is very sensitive to temperature and flowers when the average spring temperature reaches -5 to -7°C.
During the growth period, pay attention to watering and keep the pot soil moist, not waterlogged or too dry. Watering should be adjusted according to the dry and wet conditions.
Water less when the weather is cloudy and the temperature is low, and water more otherwise. In summer, water twice a day, once a day in spring and autumn, and soak thoroughly in winter.
Fertilizer application should also be reasonable. Apply base fertilizer before planting, and add a small amount of monopotassium phosphate.
Apply monopotassium phosphate again before flowering, and apply well-rotted cake fertilizer during flowering to supplement nutrients. In June, apply a compound fertilizer to promote flower bud differentiation.
After the leaves fall in autumn, apply an organic fertilizer such as well-rotted manure.
Shape pruning of ground-planted plum blossoms can be done within 20 days after flowering. Mainly maintain a natural tree shape, cut off crossed branches, upright branches, dead branches, and overly dense branches, and shorten side branches to promote a profusion of flowers and leaves.
For potted plum blossoms, heavy pruning is necessary after potting to lay the foundation for bonsai creation. Usually, plum stumps are used as scenery, and plum blossoms of various shapes are grafted onto them.
Maintain a certain temperature, and plum blossoms will be in full bloom during the Spring Festival. If you want to see the flowers bloom around May 1st, you need to maintain a temperature of 0-5°C and a moist environment, move it outdoors in early April, and place it in a sunny and well-ventilated place for care.
Potted plum blossoms are generally for home viewing. After the leaves fall in winter, keep them indoors at a temperature of 0-5°C, gradually increase the temperature to 5-10°C after the New Year, and fully expose them to light during the day, regularly spraying water on the branches, the moisture of the water should be close to room temperature.
The dried flower buds are spherical, 4-8 mm in diameter, and often have a small stem at the base. The bracts are in 3-4 layers, brown and scaly. Inside the bracts are five sepals, light brown, slightly green, ovate, and arranged in an imbricate pattern, fused with the flower base at the base.
There are five or more petals, white or yellowish-white, tightly embracing each other. Inside the petals are many yellow filamentous stamens. In the center is a pistil with an ovate ovary and a slender style. The flower is light, aromatic, and has a bland and astringent taste.
Flowers that are clean, intact, bud and not bloomed, with green sepals and white petals, and a fresh fragrance are the best. Flowers with red crowns are called red plum blossoms, similar to white plum blossoms, but slightly larger, with a light red crown, double petals, and red sepals.
However, white plum blossoms are mainly used in medicine, and red plum blossoms are rarely used.
Peggie was once a high school mathematics teacher, but she set aside her chalkboard and textbooks to follow her lifelong passion for flowers. After years of dedication and learning, she not only established a thriving flower shop but also founded this blog, “Flowers Library”. If you have any questions or wish to learn more about flowers, feel free to contact Peggie.
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