Golden Currant vs Chester Thornless Blackberry - TreeTime.ca

Golden Currant vs Chester Thornless Blackberry

Ribes aureum

Rubus fruticosa Chester (Thornless)

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON - MIGHT RETURN

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

Golden Currant
Chester Thornless Blackberry

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.

Chester Thornless Blackberry is a self-pollinating fruit-bearing shrub. In mid-summer, the Chester Thornless Blackberry produces large, sweet-tasting, heart-shaped blackberries that are perfect for fresh eating. It is a semi-erect blackberry plant that requires little support from a trellis to keep its fruit off the ground. Don't forget to protect your berries. The birds love this shrub almost as much as you will.

Chester Thornless Blackberries are floricanes, primarily fruiting on second year canes. Each spring cut back all two-year old canes, leaving only the last year’s growth.

Golden Currant Quick Facts

Chester Thornless Blackberry Quick Facts

Zone: 4a
Zone: 3b
Height: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Height: 0.9 m (3 ft)
Spread: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Spread: 3 m (10 ft)
Light: partial shade, full sun
Light: full sun
Moisture: normal
Moisture: normal, wet
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: fast
Life span: short
Life span: short
Suckering: medium
Suckering: high
Maintenance: high


Fall colour: reddish purple
Flowers: yellow
Flowers: pink
Berries: glossy black berries
Berries: heart shaped black
Firmness: firm
Harvest: July
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


Other Names: buffalo currant, clove currant, fragrant golden currant, golden flowering currant, spicebush
Other Names: chester blackberry, hardy blackberry