Thimbleberry vs Northern Black Currant - TreeTime.ca

Thimbleberry vs Northern Black Currant

Rubus parviflorus

Ribes hudsonianum

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON - MIGHT RETURN

CUSTOM GROW

Thimbleberry
Northern Black Currant

Thimbleberry is an ornamental shrub with large, green maple-like-leaves. Flowers are attractive, fragrant, and turn into red-raspberry-like berries. The berries are good for jams, cakes, breads, muffins etc. If you remove the berry, the core resembles a thimble, giving this shrub its namesake.

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.

Thimbleberry Quick Facts

Northern Black Currant Quick Facts

Zone: 4a
Zone: 3a
Height: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Height: 0.9 m (3 ft)
Spread: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Spread: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Light: partial shade, full sun
Light: partial shade, full sun
Moisture: any
Moisture: normal, wet
Growth rate: fast
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


Foliage: Soft leaves up to 8 inches across
Fall colour: gold
Flowers: white, showy
Flowers: small white, in clusters
Bloom time: spring to early summer
Berries: edible, red, similar to raspberries
Berries: black, edible
Flavor: bitter
Harvest: mid to late summer
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


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