Aprimira®
Prunus x insititia Aprimira is a new hybrid mirabelle - apricot. The fruits are sweet, and relatively large by the standards of mirabelles - more like small apricots in size. However in most other respects the mirabelle side of the partnership is the most prominent, and Aprimira is best considered as a larger pink / yellow-flushed mirabelle.
The blossom is plain white, and appears at about the same time as the leaves.
The fruits ripen gradually throughout August, at about the same time as Victoria plums, and can be picked fresh from the tree over an extended period. They will also keep fresh in a fridge for about a week - longer than most dessert plums. They are particularly pretty - a mix of dusky red and orange hues.
The flavour is especially sweet and the stone falls away cleanly from the flesh, making Aprimira easy to use in the kitchen.
We think Aprimira is one of the best of the new inter-specific stone fruit varieties.
Aprimira apricot trees for sale
1-year bare-root
tree
on Weiwa rootstock£38.75
Mature height: 3m-5m after 10 years
Can be trained on to become a large free-standing fruit tree, or a half-standard fruit tree, or a large fan-trained fruit tree.
Available next season
Growing and Training
Aprimira is self-fertile, and flowers early in the spring. Nevertheless, despite the apricot ancestry, Aprimira flowers in the mirabelle / plum blossom season, not the apricot season (which is earlier in the spring).
Aprimira is useful pollinator for other very early flowering plum species, including pluots, cherry plums and other mirabelles.
History
Mirabelles and apricots are closely related members of the Prunus family, and many of these varieties will naturally cross-pollinate each other to create new hybrids.
Aprimira was developed at the Geisenheim research station in Germany from a Mirabelle von Herrenhausen, and released in 1994.
Aprimira characteristics
- Gardening skillAverage
- Fruit persistenceRipens over a period
- Self-fertile?Self-fertile
- Pick seasonEarly
- Picking monthAugust
- Picking periodmid-August
- Keeping1 week
- Food usesEating freshCulinaryDual purpose
- Country of originGermany
- Period of origin1950 - 1999
- Fruit colourYellow
More about apricot trees
Frankly, apricot trees are not that easy to grow in the UK. Our summers are not always hot enough, our spring weather is often too wet, and our winters are not cold enough. However with luck and care they make a really interesting addition to the home orchard.
For best results plant apricot trees in a sheltered spot in full sun, or train them as fans against a south-facing wall or fence. Well-drained soil is best, avoid areas where water pools over the winter. Avoid pruning apricot trees if you can, but promptly cut back and remove any signs of dieback on branches.
It's then just a matter of hoping for a nice sunny spring and a hot dry summer, followed by a nice cold winter! All apricots are self-fertile so you only need to plant one (although planting several different ones together will improve the crop). If you find there are lots of fruitlets after the blossom has finished, be ruthless in thinning them out - you will get a better crop and better flavours as a result.
Apricots also have excellent nutritional and medicinal properties, and contain more concentrations of beneficial compounds than most other fruit. They are one of the best natural sources of Vitamin A.
