The Cinnabar Plum, colloquially known as the “Red Bone,” belongs to the Prunus genus and is characterized by straight or spreading branches that do not droop or bend to form an arch. The Cinnabar Plum is primarily found in East Asia, Central Asia, Anatolia, and the Caucasus.
It boasts a rich variety, with over 60 cultivars in China alone. The flowers, which can be single, double, or semi-double, exhibit red or purplish-red hues and bloom in bowl to plate shapes, exuding a light fragrance.
The peak blooming period for most Cinnabar Plum varieties generally falls between mid to late February and early March. Representative varieties include the White Beard Cinnabar, Red Beard Cinnabar, Single Petal Cinnabar, Cinnabar Tower, and Black Feather Jade.
Plum blossoms can be divided into 3 systems, 5 categories, and 18 types based on the origin of the variety and the characteristics of the branches and flowers.
Three Systems: Prunus, Apricot Plum, and Cherry Plum.
The Prunus system is further divided into three categories: Straight Foot Plum, Zhaoshui Plum, and Longyou Plum.
Apricot Plum System: Apricot Plum Category.
Cherry Plum System: Cherry Plum Category.
The Cinnabar Plum’s cold tolerance is slightly inferior, and its propagation is somewhat challenging. It’s a mid-to-late bloomer, usually flowering from late February to early March.
The Cinnabar Plum is mainly distributed in East Asia, Central Asia, Anatolia, and the Caucasus. It is also cultivated in the Wuhan Botanical Garden in China.
The Cinnabar Plum belongs to the Straight Foot Plum category of the Prunus system, with straight or spreading branches that do not droop to form an arch or twist.
The leaves are ovate or elliptical, 4-8 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, with small serrations on the leaf margin and a grayish-green color.
The flowers bloom before the leaves, with inverted ovate buds that are purplish-red. The petals are purplish-red, multilayered, and numerous, with a purple-red calyx; the fragrance is relatively strong. The petals are deep red, and the newly grown twigs have a deep red xylem.
There are numerous stamens, radiating in four directions, with light pink filaments. The newly grown twigs have a deep red xylem, and the newly formed xylem inside the branch is a light purplish-red, the so-called “red bone,” which is the main characteristic of the Cinnabar Plum.
The propagation of the Cinnabar Plum is primarily through grafting, occasionally through cutting and layering, with seeding seldom used. Seeding propagation is often used for cultivating rootstocks or selecting new varieties.
The fruits of the Cinnabar Plum are harvested in June or later when they change color. After the post-ripening stage, the skin and flesh of the fruit are removed after the beginning of autumn, washed, dried, and set aside for use.
Seeding in the same year (autumn) is preferable, with the specific timing around late September. When seeding, the land should be deeply turned and finely raked, leveled, and beds made. Furrows should be made at 40 cm intervals, 3-5 cm deep.
The seeds should be placed in the soil furrow, one after another, at 5-7 cm intervals. After sufficiently watering, cover with fine soil or sand. The following spring, when the seedlings have grown to 11-15 cm, they can be transplitted.
If seeding propagation is carried out in the spring, the seeds should be washed, dried, and stored in wet sand after cleaning and drying. They should be taken out in early spring for sowing.
Cinnabar Plum grafting includes branch grafting and bud grafting. In addition to using plum seedlings as rootstocks, peach (including hairy peach and mountain peach), plum, and apricot can also be used as rootstocks. Plum rootstocks are the best, with strong compatibility, high survival rate, good growth, and long life.
Branch grafting is carried out from mid-February to early March or from mid-October to November. The scion is selected from the middle of a robust branch, 5-6 cm long, with 2-3 buds, using cut grafting or split grafting.
Bud grafting has a high survival rate around the beginning of autumn (early August) and often uses a T-shaped bud grafting method.
After the graft has taken, the rootstock is cut off 5 cm above the graft in the early winter of the same year, and the side branches are pruned. The following spring, the graft bud sprouts, and when it has grown larger, the remaining rootstock is cut off, and any rootstock buds are wiped off at any time.
Peach rootstocks are easy to obtain, easy to graft, and grow quickly with many flowers after grafting, so they are widely used in production. However, after grafting, the Cinnabar Plum is prone to pests, and its lifespan is shortened.
To solve this contradiction, during grafting, the above-ground portion of the rootstock can be cut off 2 cm from the ground. The scion is chosen from the current year’s robust branches.
Care should be taken during grafting to ensure that the graft union is tightly joined, then tied tightly with a plastic strip and sealed with soil until the graft union is not visible. After one month, check for survival and cut off any sprouting roots, keeping the soil seal from collapsing.
Don’t be in a hurry to remove the soil all at once after survival; gradually help the bud out of the soil to prevent the new bud from drying out.
As the seedling grows taller, add soil to firm it up, allowing the scion to root. This can overcome the short lifespan of peach rootstocks. After about 2-3 years, the scion can also grow many new roots, similar to the effect of cuttings.
Cutting propagation of the Cinnabar Plum is simple and not technically complicated, but the cuttings of the Cinnabar Plum are not easy to survive, and the survival rate is low.
Quick-dipping the cuttings in a 500ppm indolebutyric acid solution or a 1000ppm naphthaleneacetic acid solution can improve the survival rate and promote rooting.
The best time for cutting propagation of the Cinnabar Plum is in November because the leaves fall at this time, and the branches store ample nutrients, making it easy for roots to grow and survive. Choose one-year-old robust branches that are 10-12 cm long as cuttings.
When cutting, most of the branches are buried in the soil, with only 2-3 cm left above the soil surface, leaving one bud outside. The cutting ground soil should be loose and well-drained.
After cutting, water thoroughly and cover with a plastic film to maintain a small area of temperature and humidity, improve the survival rate of cutting, and add water as needed. After cutting, the soil’s water content cannot be too high, or it will affect the union and rooting of the cuttings.
After survival the following year, gradually provide ventilation to adapt to the environment, and finally remove the film. The cuttings can be transplanted to a fixed plant in the spring of the third year. If spring cuttings are used, a shade shed should be set up during the summer.
Layering propagation should be carried out in February-March, choosing 1-2 year old branches, making 2-3 cuts under the branches to be buried in the soil, being careful not to cut too deep as it will affect rooting if the xylem is injured. The cut section is buried in the soil, and care should be taken not to damage the bud during operation.
After layering, soil cultivation is needed, preferably using loose, fertile sandy soil. Pay attention to watering in the summer to keep the soil moist. After rooting in the fall, it can be cut off to become a new plant.
High-pressure propagation is often used to propagate large seedlings, which can bloom as early as the following spring.
During the rainy season, an appropriate branch on the mother plant can be selected for injury, wrapped with a plastic film filled with loose mixed soil (such as peat moss plus moss), tied tightly at both ends to maintain humidity.
About a month later, check for rooting. Those that have rooted can make a cut below the layering, deep into the middle of the branch. A week later, cut off all the remaining parts for cultivation.
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.
English 
العربية 
Bahasa Indonesia 
Deutsch 
Français 
Italiano 
Nederlands 
Português 
Русский 
日本語