Highbush Cranberry vs Northern Black Currant - TreeTime.ca

Highbush Cranberry vs Northern Black Currant

Ribes hudsonianum

Viburnum trilobum

CUSTOM GROW

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

Northern Black Currant
Highbush Cranberry

Northern Black Currant is a native deciduous shrub found across Canada and the northern United States. Dark purple to black berries that ripen in summer and provide food for wildlife and humans. Fragrant yellow-green flowers that attract a wide variety of pollinators.
This shrub is well adapted to moist soils and can even survive periods of flooding. It has an interesting bronze colour in fall.

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.

Northern Black Currant Quick Facts

Highbush Cranberry Quick Facts

Zone: 3a
Zone: 2a
Height: 0.9 m (3 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, wet
Moisture: normal
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: medium
Life span: medium
Life span: medium
Growth form: upright to prostrate, thicket-forming
Spreading: seeds - low, layering - low
Suckering: none
Maintenance: medium


Flowers: small white, in clusters
Flowers: white clusters
Bloom time: spring to early summer
Berries: black, edible
Berries: edible red berries
Flavor: bitter
Harvest: mid to late summer
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


In row spacing: 0.6 m (2.0 ft)
Between row spacing: 5 m (16 ft)
Native to: AB, BC, SK, MB, ON, QC, YT, NT
Native to: AB, BC, SK, MB, ON, QC, NS, NB, NL, PE
Other Names: hudson bay currant, stinking currant, western black currant, wild black currant
Other Names: american cranberrybush, american cranberrybush viburnum, high bush cranberry, kalyna