Redcurrant

Ribes rubrum Red Lake

• Position: full sun or partial shade
• Soil: any well-drained soil
• Rate of growth: average
• Other features: large, well-flavoured berries (mid-July)
• Hardiness: fully hardy
  
  A delicious variety that has very large red fruits in July on long trusses which makes them easy to pick. Redcurrants are easy to grow shrubs, cropping well in sun or shade. Like gooseberries and blackcurrants, they develop a permanent framework of shoots so can be grown as fans, espaliers, cordons, standards, as well as bushes.
  
  
• Garden care: Prepare the ground well before planting. Remove all weeds and dig in plenty of well-rotted manure into the area. Once planted, apply a mulch of well-rotted manure every spring, as well as a nitrogen and potassium fertiliser. Make sure the plant is watered in dry weather and net the bushes to protect the fruit from birds. In the first year, prune back to one bud above soil level in winter. After that only prune out weak branches.