Extending the berries - currants

Image from Cornell Fruit page

Our first order of currants was a Wilder and a Crandall Black. The Wilder is still growing in the front with the blueberries and is throwing out more shoots. The poor Crandall was squashed to death in the Great Piggy Debacle of 2011. Thanks to the Tree Man and Bay Laurel I was able to pick up a second Wilder (from Bay Laurel) and two new Blacks from the Tree Man as well as a second set of Red Lake. The Wilder is considered a pink (It's light red!) so I thought I'd get some of the reds to match the sets. These all went in near the citrus along the garage as they get a good amount of sun but they are also shaded through most of the year, which helps keep their temps low. Our mandarin and our blood orange are still growing in that area (Keep fighting little ones!) but I thought I'd surround them with other vegetation to help keep their winter temps a bit higher. I've also interspersed some Pixwell gooseberries so we'll see how they produce in the next couple of years. I'm thinking about lining that whole fence line with some of the cooler berries such as currants and gooseberries to help fill in that area and to make it a bit more productive. And since apparently six currant bushes is not enough I ordered another 2 bushes of white currants from Trees of Antiquities to add to the mix. I have not yet pruned them, but Ivan and I have a date with our currants and gooseberries tomorrow so that we can whip them into shape. If all works out well we'll have 8 currant bushes in production with red, pink, black, and white currants coming in each year and we'll add the four gooseberry bushes to that blend and we'll just have to see what awesome jams, syrups, pies, and food stuff we can produce with these beauties.