Flowering currant is a classic example of a serviceable American plant that, when transported to different continents, takes on a personality that is unrecognizable. In the UK, Ribes sanguineum has an old-fashioned British garden look, primly clothed in pendant racemes of magenta. Traditionally they have been paired to clash with the solid yellows of spring, supplied by shrubby forsythia and King Alfred daffodils. So it is fortunate that a calmer version, named ‘Poky’s Pink’, was found by chance at Columbia Gorge in Oregon, while other, quieter cultivars have been bred, earning medals awarded by the Royal Horticultural for general garden merit. Straight species or cultivar, it is a multi-stemmed shrub worth having, prized for bursting into life early in the season. Planted in a relaxed row, flowering currant makes a partially transparent, friendly screen.
Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer, except where noted.
Flowering currant is a decorative shrub more than an edible one (although its berries can be eaten). It is an important food source for non-humans: Besides dark berries in the fall for birds and mammals, early nectar ensures that Ribes sanguineum buzzes with life from February on, attracting bumble bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The leaves are used by butterflies and moths for laying eggs, pupating, and feeding larvae. Flowering currant is as wide as it is tall, sheltering mammals and bugs and birds.
A word of caution: Although plant breeding has improved disease resistance, it is best to keep Ribes sanguineum away from pine trees, as the two together create conditions for the fungal disease, white pine blister rust.
