Pygmy Caragana vs Northern Black Currant - TreeTime.ca

Pygmy Caragana vs Northern Black Currant

Caragana pygmaea

Ribes hudsonianum

CUSTOM GROW

CUSTOM GROW

Pygmy Caragana
Northern Black Currant

Pygmy Caragana is a shrub that is related to Common Caragana and has a compact size that is suitable for yards with limited space. Its size is perfect for landscaping and decorative hedges, and requires little maintenance. This nitrogen fixer has fine-textured foliage and small yellow flowers. Much like Common Caragana, it is hardy and drought tolerant.

Popular as a low maintenance commercial landscaping shrub and for hedging. This species does have tiny spines that might poke you a bit. It has a nice appealing texture when mature.

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.

Pygmy Caragana Quick Facts

Northern Black Currant Quick Facts

Zone: 2b
Zone: 3a
Height: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Height: 0.9 m (3 ft)
Spread: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Spread: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Light: full sun
Light: partial shade, full sun
Moisture: dry, normal
Moisture: normal, wet
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: prolific tiny yellow pea-like flowers
Flowers: small white, in clusters
Bloom time: spring to early summer
Berries: black, edible
Flavor: bitter
Harvest: mid to late summer
Seeds: prolific seedpods are edible
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


Native to: AB, BC, SK, MB, ON, QC, YT, NT
Other Names: pygmy peashrub
Other Names: hudson bay currant, stinking currant, western black currant, wild black currant