Ribes sanguineum love
After tiptoeing through the tulips at the Dutch Windmill two weekends ago we headed east, and found a bunch of Ribes sanguineums putting on a show near the bathroom (I think it’s a bathroom) close to Chain of Lakes, off the bike path. Truthfully, they were all over the place, but these guys were extra floriferous. How can you not love this California native? I didn’t sniff the leaves, but according to Anni J. at Annie’s they have a “delightful resinous scent” which means deer don’t like them.
Ribes sanguineum & big bumble bee
The bees and hummingbirds go nuts for it including this fatty bumbler.
One last shot
Hurray for Ribes! If we had more garden real estate I’d plant one in a second, but they can get upwards of eight feet tall and wide. They’re also deciduous. After many years of living with deciduousness in Wisconsin, we tend to go for evergreen plants. We’ll get over it, eventually. Oh yeah, they’re drought tolerant as heck, too! For more pics of our trek through Golden Gate Park check em’ out here.
March 4, 2011 at 7:59 pm
These are all over Buena Vista Park. Some of them are in full bloom, even though there have few or no leaves. Stunning!
March 5, 2011 at 6:50 am
Ribes viburnifolium will only get 2 to 3 ft. tall. Smaller flowers, but they’re fragrant.
March 6, 2011 at 11:51 am
Haha, this is so weird… most of the plants you post about are totally ‘exotic’ to me, but these also grow here in Austria, and seeing them in bloom while here we haven’t got so much as an unfolding bud is somehow way weirder than seeing cacti and such growing outdoors!
March 9, 2011 at 12:33 am
I had one of these and I found it to be tremendously easy to kill. So much for that theory about natives being easy to grow!