Photo: André Karwath aka Aka — CC BY-SA 2.5 · source
Survives zone 2 through 7
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Fruit is red and translucent like a redcurrant but bland and insipid — this is grown almost entirely as a tough, shearable ornamental hedge shrub, not for eating.
- Hardiness
- Zone 2–7
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- June–Aug
- Mature size
- Bush 1–1.5 m; excellent in containers
- Light
- Partial to full sun (shade-tolerant)
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0
- Environment
- Montane
- Native range
- Central and northern Europe, from Finland and Norway south to the Alps, Pyrenees and Caucasus; scarce in western Europe.
- Status
- Ornamental
- Years to fruit
- 1–2 yrs
- Growth speed
- Moderate, about 15–25 cm a year.
- Spacing
- 137 cm (54 in) apart — about 1.9 m² (20 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Ovate to rounded, 3–5-lobed leaves with a heart-shaped base, coarsely toothed, 3–5 cm long, bright green.
- Root system
- Shallow, densely branched and fibrous; non-invasive, won't damage foundations or pavement.
- Fruit description
- Small (~5 mm), bright red, glossy berries, sweet and mild but generally less flavorful than true redcurrant.
- Propagation
- Stem cuttings (the usual nursery method); seed also works, sown ripe in autumn and cold-stratified.
- Pollination
- DIOECIOUS — only female plants fruit (and only females host blister rust); most nursery stock is male, fruitless, and more rust-resistant.
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Growing tips. Unusually shade-tolerant for the genus, including deep shade; also tolerates clay, sand, compaction, salt and urban pollution once established — a tough, sheared-hedge plant more than a fruiting one.
Companion planting. A documented white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) host — North Carolina bans all Ribes outright regardless of cultivar or sex. Only female plants (which fruit) act as the host; male clones are more rust-resistant, which is why nurseries sell mostly fruitless males.
Grow journal
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