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• Ribes malvaceum Sm.

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The centre of the Rock Garden, below the Visitor Centre, is where you will find the beautiful Ribes malvaceum. This species of Ribes although eventually getting to 6ft is a very slow grower. The specimen in the North American scree bed, Ribes malvaceum, is now ten years of age.

How did we obtain it? The seed from which our Plant of the Week was propagated was “wild collected” in June 1989 at 800 metres altitude, in Yolo County, California, USA by staff of; The University Arboretum, University of California, Davis. It came from a 'Chaparral' vegetation community dominated by Adenostoma fasciculatum, a thorny member of the rose family known as Chamise or Greasewood. At the time of collection it was noted that the plant had yellow-fruit. Ribes malvaceum is typically red-black fruited, so perhaps our plant is a little special. Seed arrived here in April 1991, was sown in May 1991 and three plants were placed in bed NR73 in 1996. Since then two of the three plants have unfortunately died.

All species of Ribes grow well in a moderately fertile, moisture retentive but well drained position. Some like full sun and some prefer shade. Flowering currants suffer from the same diseases as the fruiting types. At pruning time the old flowering branchlets may be cut back by ¾ to encourage new growth. An old neglected plant could be pruned back to ground level to promote new growth, or just tip-pruned to keep the plant at its desired height and shape.

Although the seed of this plant was collected in California, and most members of the 150 species in the Ribes genus grow naturally in the northern hemisphere, there are also Ribes species in the southern hemisphere, down in The Andes.

Mitchell Carle
Apprentice Horticulturist