Highbush Cranberry vs Golden Currant - TreeTime.ca

Highbush Cranberry vs Golden Currant

Ribes aureum

Viburnum trilobum

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON - MIGHT RETURN

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

Golden Currant
Highbush Cranberry

Golden Currant produces berries for jams, jellies, sauces and even pemmican. This currant bush is very dense, allowing for use as a hedge, windbreak, or wildlife habitat.

This plant is also a very popular rootstock to graft popular red and white currant varieties to. The resulting plants are taller, more productive, and easier to harvest.

Highbush Cranberry produces attractive white flowers in late June and bears edible fruit that matures to a bright red colour in the late summer.

This shrub, native to much of Canada, is fast growing, and its fruit can be eaten raw or cooked into a sauce.

Golden Currant Quick Facts

Highbush Cranberry Quick Facts

Zone: 4a
Zone: 2a
Height: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Height: 4 m (13 ft)
Spread: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Spread: 2.7 m (9 ft)
Light: partial shade, full sun
Light: partial shade, full sun
Moisture: normal
Moisture: normal
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: medium
Life span: short
Life span: medium
Suckering: medium
Suckering: none


Fall colour: reddish purple
Flowers: yellow
Flowers: white clusters
Berries: glossy black berries
Berries: edible red berries
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


In row spacing: 0.6 m (2.0 ft)
Between row spacing: 5 m (16 ft)
Other Names: buffalo currant, clove currant, fragrant golden currant, golden flowering currant, spicebush
Other Names: american cranberrybush, american cranberrybush viburnum, high bush cranberry, kalyna