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Hardy Berries and Currants: Summer Field Notes

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Field note · July 2026

a native currant with crazy fruit

Oak Summit Nursery · Southern Manitoba

a native currant with crazy fruit, Ribes gladulosum aka skunk currant - heavy rooting on these cutting after 30 days. even up the stems and out of the pots, that's a strong rooting response. the native currants are just tough, the grow vigorously and in a heat wave when cultivars start to show signs of stress in their leaves. the native ones are always the healthiest looking. this set of cuttings is a mix of local plants found along a lakeside, and seeds the usda sent last winter, I have them in two plots as accessions. this process I've been following, to collect the plants by seeds or cuttings. get them growing in a carefully labelled place in the nursery, and then once per year in june collect the new shoots to make more, it's a fun ongoing effort to build a germplasm, a collection of genetics to grow and preserve, and one day to try some breeding work with. aspirationally, a hybrid between these fruit and a larger cultivar would make a very cool looking fruit. are there any glandulosum hybrids out there? kind of want to make some. did you know that black velvet, one of our fastest growing gooseberries is a cross with the Worcesterberry (Ribes divaricatum). interesting Ribes hybrids are possible, in fact many of them do have some tangled mix of hybridization. Jostaberry is another good example.