The tree is smallish, with a rounded crown and low branches. It makes an attractive landscape feature with its deep green foliage and white blossom. Like many of the best heirloom fruits, Green Gage is tricky to grow and is considered very susceptible to brown rot. It should be well pruned to keep the tree open and annual, and fruit clusters will need multiple pickings. This tree is partially self-fertile, but both flavor and productivity will be improved by a pollenizer. Specific suggestions include Oullins Gage, Stanley, and Rosy Gage, but any other European plum will probably do the job.

This is an early, green-yellow, medium-sized plum with firm yet tender amber flesh. Its flavor is considered outstanding by connoisseurs. Hedrick writes in Plums of New York: "For qualities that gratify or assist in gratifying the sense of taste–richness of flavor, consistency, and texture of flesh, abundance of juice and pleasant aroma–the Reine Claude is unsurpassed."

The earliest history of the Green Gage or Reine Claude plums is obscure. It is possible that they originated in Armenia and came to Italy via Greece. They would then be identified with the fragrant plums mentioned in Pliny's Natural History. We do, however, know that this plum was introduced in France during the reign of Francis I (1494-1597) and that he named it Reine Claude in honor of his wife. The plum then acquired the name Green Gage when it was brought to England by the Gage family, and from there they came to America in the late 1700s. Green Gage has, at all times in its history been esteemed for its honeyed flavor and tender flesh.