I have had Ribes odoratum in the past, for about a decade, but it spread so much with the constant suckering that I was having to fight it for the northwestern corner of the veggie garden, and I finally took it all out. It took me two or three years to get rid of all the suckers, and wouldn't surprise me if new suckers pop up this fall or next spring.

They're tremendously easy to grow from suckers. Before mine began spreading wildly on its own, I'd dig up suckers with a bit of root attached and plant them wherever I wanted another one.

I've never seen the clove currants in nurseries or garden centers in southern Oklahoma, but maybe someone further north than I am will tell you if they've seen them in nurseries anywhere. I bought mine at the Heard Nature Museum spring native plant sale in the Dallas area in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

Usually you can buy clove currant online from High Country Gardens, which I'll link below. It probably is sold out right now.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: High Country Gardens

It doesn't spread for me but it is a gangly shrub. I've never thought of it for fruit only as an ornamental. The fragrance beats honeysuckle. The MO Dept. of Conservation sells it to MO residents cheaply. I don't know how that would help you. I also may have some this fall if summer doesn't fry everything.

Gosh, thanks. y'all are helpful! Any chance either of you would be willing to sell or trade some suckers this fall? I don't really have much to trade since i just moved back & established this house 6 months ago. I will have eggs any day now. I'm in Jackson county.

Bump this thread up in the fall after in rains and cools off. Anything dug up now would die.

Same here. Bring this back up in the fall, and I'll search the edge of my garden to see if suckers have come back. If there aren't in the fall, maybe they'll pop up in the spring. With clove currant, even when you think it is dead and gone, it isn't! I'll be happy to send you some suckers in fall or in late winter if they pop up. I didn't see any this morning, but the flowers are pretty heavy outside the garden fence, and the winter squash is all over inside the fence. There might be some suckers of clove currant hiding in there somewhere.

Dawn

Hey, y'all! I actually was able to get four plants from high country last fall. They all got ripped up while i was away. I found two and stuck them back in the ground but they have yet to even look alive. Anyone still willing to give me some suckers?

Did your plants get ripped up by that deer chasing beagle?

I am beginning to see new leaves on mine. I can hardly wait for the flowers. They smell so good. This link tells me why I never get fruit. It has male and female plants. Mine never gets as big as described below; maybe my soil is not humusy enough.

Here is a link that might be useful: description of Buffalo currant

This post was edited by helenh on Wed, Mar 13, 13 at 1:06

I grew them for a long time here...maybe a decade. They suckered constantly and were invading the vegetable garden more and more every year, so I finally ripped them all out. For a while, new suckers would sprout near that location, and I'd yank them out. I don't remember seeing any sprout last year and probably not the year before, and I haven't seen any this year.

If any happen to pop up, I'd be happy to dig them up and send them to you. However, I think it is unlikely that they will reappear this year after not sprouting for the past two springs. If they were going to sprout, they'd likely be up and growing by now.

I love the fragrance of clove currant, but mine was in a place where it grew almost too well and became an invasive thug.

Helen, I never got the fruit either since I just had the one plant, but I didn't care....I grew clove currant purely for the fragrance.

Dawn

If you look in many fruit tree catalogs and see - Ribes odoratum 'Crandall' - it is basically the same plant, just a named version of it.