We bought our house three summers ago from an elderly lady who lived here since the 40’s. She told us that one of her greatest joys was a plum bush. Every year she picked a bucket of red plums and made jam. I didn’t find any despite much searching. Finally, I noticed five sticks with a few plum-like leaves barely surviving among thick bushes in an abandoned house next door. It took me much of last summer – and a cool new saw – to cut the thicket around these “sticks”. They began to thrive! Now I am waiting anxiously to see if they begin to bloom and produce the mystery plums.