Gray Dogwood vs Ben Sarek Black Currant - TreeTime.ca

Gray Dogwood vs Ben Sarek Black Currant

Ribes nigrum Ben Sarek

Cornus racemosa

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

CUSTOM GROW

Ben Sarek Black Currant
Gray Dogwood

Ben Sarek Black Currant is a compact, high-yielding Black Currant cultivar, making it ideal for smaller gardens and easy berry picking. The large clusters of flavourful, sweet-tart berries ripen in mid-summer and are perfect for fresh eating, preserves, baked goods, and liqueurs. Plants may start producing some berries after two years, reaching full production in about four to five.

Developed by the Scottish Crop Research Institute, Ben Sarek Black Currant is resistant to powdery mildew and moderately resistant to white pine blister rust. It is self-fertile, meaning it does not require cross-pollination from another variety to produce fruit.

Gray dogwood is a thicket-forming, deciduous shrub with greenish-white blossoms in open, terminal clusters. Young twigs are red and the fruit pedicels remain conspicuously red into late fall and early winter.

Fruit itself is a white, 1/4 in. drupe that usually does not remain on the shrub for long.

Great for naturalizing wild areas, this shrub attracts birds and other wildlife.

Ben Sarek Black Currant Quick Facts

Gray Dogwood Quick Facts

Zone: 3a
Zone: 4a
Height: 1.1 m (4 ft)
Height: 3 m (10 ft)
Spread: 1.1 m (4 ft)
Spread: 3 m (10 ft)
Light: partial shade, full sun
Light: any
Moisture: normal
Moisture: any
Growth rate: fast
Growth rate: slow
Life span: short
Life span: medium
Growth form: compact, dense, rounded
Spreading: layering - low
Suckering: medium
Maintenance: medium


Foliage: aromatic when crushed
Fall colour: deep, reddish puple
Flowers: greenish-yellow
Bloom time: early to mid spring
Berries: black currants, edible
Flavor: sweet-tart
Harvest: mid-summer
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


Native to: MB, ON, QC
Other Names: ben sarek blackcurrant