Ribes sanguineum
Red Flowering Currant
This shrub is just starting to bloom in my garden plot. It’s a pink flowered currant with light pink flowers in drooping clusters. The plant is 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide and a very nice rounded shape. Its bark is smooth, light brown with no bristles. The leaves are fragrant, a pine-y, sticky scent. The flowers smell too, and lots of insects were visiting today.
Pink flowered currant is native to California and the Northwest. There are many cultivars now, selected for ornamental and edible attributes, such as fruit color and double flowers. They can grow in sun or under oaks in part shade, and are quite drought tolerant once established. Hummingbirds like the flowers. Today I pruned this shrub lightly, just removing crossing branches on the inside of the bush, and took home the cuttings for an arrangement because they are so pretty, even just in bud. I didn’t want to take off too much though, and lose the crop. I wonder what kinds of fruits it will have.
Happy today in my garden, pruning roses and roses and roses. Actually nine rose bushes. And planting sweet peas.
