Red flowering currant

Family

Grossulariaceae

Habit

Shrub

Height

2.5 m

Spread

2.5 m

Growth

medium

Lifespan

30 years

First yield

after 3 years

Hardiness

zone 5–9

Shade tolerance

partial shade

Soil

Sand, Silt, Loam, Clay

Soil moisture

semi-dry – very moist

pH

5.5 – 7.5

Times apply to the northern hemisphere in a temperate climate and shift with altitude and cultivar.

Edible: The flowering currant is not planted as a fruit bush, and the sources do not agree about it either: English literature calls the blue-black, bloomed berries edible but of poor flavour, while NaturaDB simply describes them as inedibly sour and lacking aroma. What both assessments share is that this is no nibbling shrub. Well documented, by contrast, is traditional use in the Pacific Northwest, where the berries were eaten fresh, dried and processed into jam, juice, syrup and pies — usually mixed with more aromatic wild fruit. The flowers served, and still serve, as a flavouring for drinks, especially infused spirits. In the garden the verdict is therefore: edible yes, worthwhile hardly; the birds take most of the crop anyway.

Other uses: The main use of the flowering currant lies in ornament and structure. Since its introduction in 1826 it has been one of the most popular early-flowering shrubs of all; numerous cultivars exist with flowers from white to deep red, three of them holding the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. In floristry the branches are cut and forced in the vase, bringing the bloom forward by weeks. Horticulturally its dense, upright habit counts: it suits informal hedges, windbreaks, screening and front planting at a woodland edge, where it delivers closed structure within a few years and stays unobtrusive for the rest of the season.

Site: An upright shrub of 1.5 to 2.5 metres, up to four in some cultivars — good as an early-flowering front planting, in a hedge or at a woodland edge. Sun to partial shade both work, but the mass of bloom depends on light; in deep shade it stays sparse. Its great garden value is the timing: in March and April it is one of the first abundant food sources and keeps bumblebees and hairy-footed flower bees on site until fruit blossom begins — which is why it pays to plant it near the fruit trees. One planning point: like all currants it is an intermediate host of white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), so keep a distance from eastern white pine and Swiss pine. The blue-black berries are spread by birds, so it occasionally self-seeds. Care: Straightforward and fully hardy; no winter protection needed. The decisive point is when to prune: it flowers on last year's wood, so a winter cut costs the bloom. Prune immediately after flowering, and prune as thinning — remove the oldest stems at ground level every three or four years and the shrub stays leafy from the base. A mulch layer and even moisture in the first years help it establish; after that it is robust. Aphids and currant blister aphid occur, and mildew in still positions — an airy site and thinning are enough as a response. Deer and hares occasionally browse young plants.

The easiest and most reliable route is hardwood cuttings: in winter take roughly 20-centimetre pieces of last year's ripened wood and push them into loose, moist soil leaving two buds above ground — the strike rate is high, as with all currants. Semi-ripe summer cuttings under film also work. Layering is a convenient alternative: bend a low stem down, mound soil over it and separate it the following year. Sowing is the route for wild provenances and needs a cold period of two to three months for even germination. The many garden cultivars with white to deep red flowers can only be reproduced true vegetatively.

The flowering currant is a neophyte, but one with a real contribution, and it lies in the timing. NaturaDB records eight wild bee species at its flowers, none of them specialised; among them the hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes) and several mining bees (Andrena), plus bumblebees, which in March and April depend on the few flowers open. In its native range it is a hummingbird plant — Anna's hummingbird uses its nectar regularly — and deer and elk browse the foliage while the caterpillars of several moths feed on the leaves. The berries are bland for people but attractive to birds in autumn and winter, and the dense branch structure is used for nesting. Anyone after maximum species numbers does better with goat willow or cornelian cherry at the same season; as a companion to those, though, the flowering currant is no empty backdrop.

Notable: brought from the Pacific Northwest to England by David Douglas in 1826+an immediate fashion there; three cultivars hold the RHS Award of Garden Merit; as an intermediate host of white pine blister rust the genus Ribes was under planting bans in the USA from the 1920s to 1966, ended only by more resistant pines; a hummingbird plant in its homeland;

Western North America. The flowering currant is native along the Pacific coast from British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to northern California, south as far as Santa Barbara County, plus Guadalupe Island off Mexico. Its centre lies in the moist regions west of the Cascades; in California it climbs to 2,200 metres. In Idaho, at the eastern edge of its range, it is known from only four counties and counts as critically imperilled. It reached Europe in 1826 through the Scottish plant collector David Douglas and became an instant fashion among English gardeners; since then it has been one of the most common spring-flowering shrubs in Central European gardens and parks. Escapes occur but do not persist here.

In its homeland the flowering currant grows in open, moist woodland, at woodland edges, in thickets and clearings of the Pacific Northwest. The climate there is oceanic, with mild, very wet winters and rather dry summers — and its rhythm matches exactly: it flowers very early, during or just before leaf emergence, using the light before the tree canopy closes. It prefers sunny positions but is markedly shade-tolerant and, once established, survives drought, though it grows best cool and moist. It needs fresh, nutrient-rich, sandy to loamy soil without waterlogging. In Central Europe its requirements correspond most closely to a semi-shaded woodland edge.