Victoria Plum

Also called Alderton, Denyer’s Victoria and Sharp's Emperor. The Victoria is one of the most famous plums, principally because it is one of the heaviest and most regular croppers, with large fruit, and may be eaten for dessert or used for cooking. The traditional and long-repeated story is that it was a chance seedling found wild in a wood at Alderton in Sussex. Christopher Stocks, in his book ‘Forgotten Fruits’ pointed out that there is no Alderton in Sussex and there seems to be no record of a past or present village by that name in any southern county. Sharp's Emperor was the original name, but then the plum was sold to a nurseryman called Denyer who introduced it around 1840 as Denyer's Victoria. The large, reddish purple fruit has a good but not excellent flavour, compared with some plums and gages. Fruits are ready late August to early September. It has a tendency to become biennial with age.