Golden Currant Bareroot

Species: Ribes aureum

Why We Grow It: Golden Currants are an excellent plant for those looking to add more native plants to their collection. This hardy and adaptable shrub produces numerous yellow blooms that smell similar to cloves (hence the other common name) and attract many pollinators including hummingbirds. Later in the summer, the small, dark berries can be harvested from the bush for use in jams, preserves, and baking or can be left to feed the birds.

Recommended Use: Baking, preserving, ornamental, wildlife, attracting pollinators

Fruit Size: Small

Storage: Berries last about a week in the fridge, can be stored frozen for about a year

Harvest: July to August

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 3

Soil Preferance: Prefers moist, well-drained soil but is adaptable to a wide range of conditions including heavy clay and soil with high pH levels

Flowering Time: Spring

Bloom Colour: Yellow

Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating

Sun/Shade Requirements: Full Sun or Partial Shade (approx. 6-10 hours of sun daily)

General Growth Habit: Shrub can reach 3m tall, moderate vigour with an upright and dense growth habit. Susceptible to white pine blister rust.

Overall Grower Ease Rating: Unknown

This rating is a combination of our experience growing in our test orchards and current available information on the cultivar.

Golden Currants (aka Clove Currants) are native to Canada and the central US. They are a source of nectar for many pollinators including butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds and the berries are a food source for various bird species. Indigenous peoples traditionally harvest the berries and use parts of the plant medicinally. Golden Currants are also used as landscape/ornamental plants, particularly in native plant gardens.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of plants picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc.

When Will My Order Be Ready?

Most of our bareroot plants and tubers are only available for spring planting! Only bareroot apples and pears are available for fall planting.

Spring orders are generally ready to be picked up or shipped out anywhere from late March to late May! We will be in touch in the spring once your order is ready to go. Orders placed in the spring might not be ready for 1-2 weeks as this is a very busy time of year for us.

Golden currants are divided into the following grades:

-1 year plant - 15-50cm
-2 year plant - 30-70cm

There is some overlap in size since we are also taking the age of the plants into account. Some older plants may not have put on quite as much vegetative growth but will have larger root systems.

All of these heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively.

Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

$25.00

Size: 1 year plant

Out of stock

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