Red-flowering currant 'King Edward VII'

Shrub with a dense, compact habit and large, densely dark-red racemes. Blooms late, from April to May; currently the most beautiful form.

Appearance: a small shrub 0.8-1.5m high and wide, dense, compact, slow-growing.

Flowers: intensely carmine, buds whitish, flowering 1-2 weeks, strong fragrance.

Fruits: black with a glaucous bloom.

Leaves: 3-5-lobed, dark green, on pubescent, glandular petioles, slightly pubescent above, underside covered with a whitish tomentum.

Requirements: full sun only, quickly ages in shade, not very winter-hardy.

Soils: fresh or moist, avoid drought or excessive moisture, any garden soils.

Uses: the red-flowering currant is best planted in combination with forsythia, spring perennials and bulbous plants. This currant is also very attractive as a specimen, in group plantings and in hedges. In Europe it is often grown as a standard (trained tree form), grafted onto the golden currant. By grafting the red-flowering currant into the crown of the fragrant currant one can even obtain a shrub that will bear golden and red flowers on different tiers during the flowering period.

Zone: 5b