cold play
Ornamental flowering currants are considered so common and easy to grow, they are often unfairly disregarded.
But let me tell you of my experiences with this fascinating and useful family. As a child, I first met the spring-blooming flowering currant, pink
Ribes sanguineum – the one we all know – in my mother’s Edmonds cookery book, where coloured photos of baked goodies were shown tastefully arranged around little vases of spring treasures such as primroses, grape hyacinths, violets and sprigs of flowering currant.
This ornamental cousin of the edible blackcurrant was so popular in the 20th century it was found in almost every garden, its pendulous knicker-pink blooms among aromatic leaves announcing spring’s arrival as surely as daffodils and the iconic kowhai.
Imagine my surprise on moving to my present garden many decades later, to discover a flowering currant in full bloom on bare branches in the middle of winter.
This airy, delicately branched 2.5m shrub – obviously a flowering currant – bedecked with palest pink blossoms suspended from every branch – had no leaves. In July!
Tui, bellbirds and insects were regular visitors for the nectar, proving its worth as a winter nectar source. What could it be? Was it an unusual old cultivar of Ribes
sanguineum, a separate species or an open-pollinated happening in this garden?
Many hours over many years followed as I studied and researched this rare treasure. The blooms, white blushed palest pink (they force white indoors) deepen to rose pink by September when the leaves emerge. These, too, differ from the norm in that they lack the pungent smell of regular flowering currants.
There are many other long-ago planted flowering currants in this old garden, some with the darker pink and red blooms of Ribes sanguineum ‘Pulborough Scarlet‘ and ‘King Edward VII‘. Though most of these have larger leaves and brilliant autumn colour, they also lack the aromatic scent of the type and all bloom later in spring with their leaves.
It was possibly introduced from Canada, flowering currant’s original home, because the wife of one of the plantsmen who created this garden was Canadian. After years of research (and there are 150 species of Ribes), I am still unable to provide a definitive answer.
Another winter-blooming gem from the currant family is greenflowered Ribes laurifolium.
It is a low growing evergreen with maroon backed thick leathery green leaves. I had been seeking this unusual July-flowering shrub since reading the late great Christopher Lloyd’s description many years ago. I finally sourced a plant in 2005 in the catalogue of Allenton Nurseries in Ashburton. This very appealing winter joy is now available in garden centres.
Ribes laurifolium literally smothers itself in a waterfall of luminescent lime-green blooms which are lightly scented, giving off a clean citrusy fragrance. Like all currants, it prefers a rich deep loam, but flowering currants are generally unfussy plants, thriving in most situations. It likes sun and partial shade, the almost succulent leaves tending to scorch in overhot summer temperatures.
As with Viburnum davidii, male and female flowers are borne on separate plants so if the black berries are to be produced, both sexes are needed. I’ve not yet seen sexed forms offered in the trade.
The lax habit of Ribes laurifolium means it will root spontaneously wherever a branch touches the ground, giving it potential as a groundcover. It may also be trained up a wall or other supports.
This evergreen gem with numerous tassles of celadon bloom associates well with other July-flowering plants.
To create a fragrant midwinter picture, add double white and green hellebores, snowdrops, white violets, primroses, the largest spring snowflake
Leucojum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant‘, paperwhite jonquils, white daphne and the emerald-tinted white japonica
Chaenomeles ‘Green Ice‘. All nestled under the winter-flowering apricot Prunus mume ‘Alba‘, a small tree spangled with scented white blossoms in midwinter.
This seasonal scheme may be further extended by the addition of the tulip ‘Spring Green‘ and white fairy primulas, Primula malacoides.
There are, of course, many more garden-worthy members of the Ribes tribe.
Spring-flowering Ribes odoratum is another I would not be without, its golden, clove-scented blossoms enhanced by the hawthornshaped foliage.
Coming up the drive I pause to smile at the giant wintersweet drenching the air with its golden fragrance. Nearby, the winter-flowering currant has exploded into puffs of palest pink blossom on every bare and elegantly sculpted branch.
How lucky I am to inherit such beautiful plants. I just hope that in the future, others will experience the joy and beauty of all the treasures I have added to this garden.