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Perhaps a currant bush AND a new plant?

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Gers
Gers Posts: 12,033 Forumite
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edited 30 July 2015 at 2:24PM in Gardening
[IMG][/img]Bush.jpg

I've got a large bush which, until about a month ago was just wood. Now it's got leaves and is starting to produce the berries as in the picture. There's not many of them and they smell a bit like blackcurrants.

Is this a blackcurrant bush?

If it is it won't be producing many berries this year as it wasn't cut right back last year.
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  • arbrighton
    arbrighton Posts: 2,011 Forumite
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    My blackcurrants ripened already even after the bush was dug up and moved.

    But the leaves etc do look like a currant
  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 13,229 Forumite
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    Could be gooseberry, but currant seems more likely
    Eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said their cats preferred other peoples gardens
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 12,033 Forumite
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    Thanks - I can't remember it blossoming, it was just a bunch of branches and then full of leaves. I only noticed the 'berries' at the weekend.

    Think I'll have to do a mega-prune in autumn and see next year what it turns into.

    Every day another new surprise in my new garden.
  • zygurat789
    zygurat789 Posts: 4,263 Forumite
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    Gers wrote: »
    I've got a large bush which, until about a month ago was just wood. Now it's got leaves and is starting to produce the berries as in the picture. There's not many of them and they smell a bit like blackcurrants. Is this a blackcurrant bush?If it is it won't be producing many berries this year as it wasn't cut right back last year.

    Blackcurrants and redcurrants are pruned differently. With a blackcurrant you should take out the older stems from the ground and leave the newer ones alone.
    Have you cut this hard back in previous years, maybe this is why it hasn't fruited.
    The only thing that is constant is change.
  • peter_the_piper
    peter_the_piper Posts: 30,268 Forumite
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    The colours and shape of the fruit would make me think Gooseberry
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  • torbrex
    torbrex Posts: 71,340 Forumite
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    Blackcurrant will produce fruit next year on this years wood so don't prune too much if you want fruit.
  • RAS
    RAS Posts: 32,666 Forumite
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    The flowers on currants are often green so not very noticeable. Gooseberries have thorns/prickles and flower on the previous years wood.

    However I suspect that it is a flowering currant not a black currant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribes_sanguineum
    The person who has not made a mistake, has made nothing
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 12,033 Forumite
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    peter_the_piper wrote: »
    The colours and shape of the fruit would make me think Gooseberry

    Thanks - I hope not as I'm not at all fond of gooseberry.
    torbrex wrote: »
    Blackcurrant will produce fruit next year on this years wood so don't prune too much if you want fruit.

    Didn't prune last year - it's a 'new to me' garden' and so can't really tell which is new wood or old wood,
    RAS wrote: »
    The flowers on currants are often green so not very noticeable. Gooseberries have thorns/prickles and flower on the previous years wood.

    However I suspect that it is a flowering currant not a black currant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribes_sanguineum

    There are no thorns or prickles, and not enough flowers for me to notice.

    Thanks for all the replies. I will watch and wait to see what the other few berries develop into. The leaves don't immediately say 'blackcurrant' to me but then I'm such a novice!
  • REEN
    REEN Posts: 547 Forumite
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    I think RAS is right. My flowering currant has fruit just like that.
  • theoretica
    theoretica Posts: 12,306 Forumite
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    Not gooseberry - they don't have fruit in strings like that. It will be some form of currant. The slightly hairy fruit makes me think the flowering currant suggestion is right.

    Not many fruit could mean there weren't many flowers, so easier to miss.
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