Duke Gardens Director of Horticulture Robert Mottern said that the show the gardens puts on in the spring begins late January, when the first pink blooms of the flowering plum trees come alive and ...

Photos/ Lee Gugliada Dark reddish, plum-colored leaves resembling a Japanese Maple will appear after the flowers fade on this tree, possibly a Purple Leaf Plum, in Cindy Stolzenthaler's garden.

Q. My flowering plum has made fruit this year. I have been here five years and this tree never made fruit before. I thought it was for flowering only and would not make fruit.

Gayle Tomasson walks her dogs, Texas and Gilly, down a sidewalk lined with Flowering Plum trees in north Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, March 5, 2013.

Want more birds and butterflies in your yard? This a shady tree that can bring color, fragrance, and wildlife to your yard, creating a peaceful outdoor escape.

Yes, they were messy at times but many good trees are. Question: My second question: I had a flowering red plum in my front yard. All of a sudden within one year the tree died.

Gene Wigglesworth, 74, calls himself a tree person. He formed a committee to figure out what was wrong with the flowering plum trees that lined his neighborhood.