Red flowering currant shrubs have been on my wish list for a while, but it wasn’t until I started landscaping with native plants that I actually added some to the garden. I purchased two of them from Seattle Native Plants this spring and Mark, the owner, sent me two pots with two strong currant starts in each, so technically I had four of them. Since then, I took cuttings from them and added five more small ones in pots in the greenhouse.

The value these plants bring is not just ornamental but in their wildlife value. From realgardensgrownatives.com:

Wildlife value
Pendulous flower clusters, which consist of numerous lightly fragrant, pink to reddish tubular flowers, bloom in profusion along this shrub’s many stems. They offer nectar and pollen at a time when early-emerging pollinators — such as queen bumble bees who must secure a nest and provide for offspring all by themselves — have little else to eat. The early blossoms are also attractive to birds, especially hummingbirds, but also bushtits, making this species a hub of wildlife activity for well over a month. Later on, when berries ripen as summer wanes, birds such as American robins and cedar waxwings feast (we can also eat them but they are rather tasteless). The small, lobed leaves may provide food for zephyr (Polygonia gracilis zephyrus), Ceanothus silkmoth (Hyalophora euryalus), and other butterfly and moth larvae, which in turn supply food for insectivorous birds. 

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My 2020 plans for these plants are to keep them watered a bit as they continue to become established and sneak more cuttings off of them as I can for sales and gifts. I’m not sure I’ll get flowers next spring, but I imagine I will in 2022 and for many years to come.