Damson - Cultivars

Cultivars

Several cultivars have been selected, and some are found in both in the United Kingdom and the United States. There are still relatively few varieties of damson, with The Garden recording no more than "eight or nine varieties" in existence at the end of the 19th century; some are self-fertile and can reproduce from seed as well as by grafting. The varieties 'Farleigh Damson' and 'Prune Damson' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The Farleigh Damson (syn. "Crittenden's Prolific") is named after the village of East Farleigh in Kent, where it was raised by James Crittenden in the early 19th century. An 1871 letter to the Journal of horticulture and practical gardening claimed that the original seedling had been found by a Mr. Herbert, the tenant of a market garden in Strood, who had given it to Crittenden. It has small, roundish, black fruit, with a blue bloom, and is a very heavy bearer. Its heavy cropping led to it being widely planted in England.

The Shropshire Prune (syn. "Prune Damson", "Long Damson", "Damascene", "Westmoreland Damson", "Cheshire Damson") is a very old variety; its blue-purple, ovoid fruit has a distinctively "full rich astringent" flavour considered superior to other damsons, and it was thought particularly suitable for canning. Hogg states that this was the variety that became specifically associated with the old name "damascene". The local types often known as the "Westmoreland Damson" and "Cheshire Damson" are described as synonymous with the Shropshire Prune by the horticulturalist Harold Taylor and others. The Shropshire was also the best-known variety of damson in the United States.
Frogmore is a variety first grown in the late 19th century in the Royal Gardens at Frogmore, described as having sweet, round-oval, purplish black fruit.
King of the Damsons (syn. "Bradley's King") is a Nottinghamshire late-season variety, making a vigorous and spreading tree with foliage that turns a distinctive yellow in autumn. It was first distributed by Bradley & Sons of Halam in around 1880. The fruit is large, obovoid and purple.
Merryweather is a popular 20th century cultivar, introduced by the firm of Henry Merryweather & Sons. The fruit is deep blue and relatively sweet when ripe.
Early Rivers, registered in 1871, was raised by Rivers' Nursery from a seed of the variety St Etienne, and has roundish blue-black fruit with a chalky bloom.
The Blue Violet originated in Westmoreland (possibly as a hybrid of the Shropshire Prune) and was first sent to the National Fruit Trials in the 1930s. An early variety, fruiting in August, it was long thought to have been lost but a few trees were discovered in the Lake District in 2007.
The Common Damson (syn. "Small Round Damson") was a traditional variety with small, black fruit, being probably very close to wild specimens. It had a mealy texture and acid flavour, and by the 1940s it was no longer planted.

A type of damson once widely grown in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was never definitely identified but generally known as the "Armagh Damson"; its fruit were particularly well regarded for canning. Local types of English prune such as the "Aylesbury Prune", or the Gloucestershire "Old Pruin", are sometimes described as damson varieties.