Currant alpine: description of the variety

If you want to decorate your site with a winter-resistant shrub with high decorative qualities, but easy to clean, then you will surely like the alpine currant. It has several different forms and species, including dwarf ones, with yellow or red leaves. The bush perfectly suits a curly haircut, which allows you to create a hedge or interesting objects from it.

Currant Alpine: photo and description

This deciduous shrub in a natural environment is widespread in Europe, Western Turkey, the Caucasus, Morocco and North Africa. In Russia it can be found even in Western Siberia. It prefers to grow along the banks of rivers, on light edges and glades, in mixed forests.

Alpine currant is a shrub that reaches a height of one and a half meters with compact branches, densely covered with foliage. Flowers of a greenish-yellow hue form drooping brushes. Leaves in shape as in the usual garden form, trilobate, width up to 4 centimeters, dark green color, glossy. The berries are small, 6-8 mm in diameter, pink in color. Blossom bush in May-June, and fruiting begins in July and lasts through August, depending on the weather conditions. Berries are suitable for food, but the taste is low, so the plant is grown more decorative.

Place on the site

Like most ornamental and deciduous plants, the alpine currant (see photo in the article) prefers well-lit areas where there will be enough solar heat. Choose a place where there are no passing groundwater. If the seedlings are planted in groups or for the future formation of a hedge, then between them it is necessary to leave a distance of one meter or even one and a half. This is necessary for good lighting and proper development. Survival is best for seedlings with a closed root system, planted in containers. They are somewhat more expensive, but more often it pays off, especially if you need one or a couple of bushes.

The terms of the alpine and blackberry currant transplantation are the same as for any other shrub. You can do this in the spring or autumn, before the onset of cold weather, so that the plant has time to grow stronger.

Soil for shrubs

Alpine currant is not too demanding on the composition of the soil. Depending on the variety, the soil acidity criterion can change, even easy salinity can be transferred. If you want the bush to develop well and to please its decorative appearance, then prepare a nutritious soil before planting.

Approximate dimensions of the landing pit - 50 * 50 * 50 cm, drainage is not necessary. Use humus, sod land, sand. If you are preparing a place from autumn, then add mineral fertilizers, and in the spring again, carefully dig the site under the bush.

Care of the bush

Currant Alpine does not require too much attention. The main care consists in watering, fertilizing with fertilizers and timely pruning, forming a bush. Compost or humus is recommended to be applied to the soil at least once a year in the spring, mineral complex preparations - twice (in April-May and after flowering).

Forming and sanitary pruning of shoots should be made before the start of sap movement, that is, in late March - early April.

Alpine currant, the description of which is given as a culture resistant to droughts, still needs watering for normal growth and development. If the season was too hot, then you need to water the shrub 2-3 times at a rate of 5-6 liters of water under one copy. We advise you to use this method, such as drip irrigation. This will not only save water, but also contribute to its best assimilation by the plant.

Pests and diseases

Like the usual garden form, Alpine currant is susceptible to pest attack. The most common are aphids, spider mites, rust. In order not to save the bushes from any disasters in an emergency, experts recommend that preventive treatment with various fungicidal and insecticidal preparations is carried out . The first, for example, include "Fitosporin", "Acrobat", "Ridomil", "Ordan" and others. But to get rid of insect pests will help you "Fitoverm", "Actellik", "Carbophos", etc. There are modern ways of biological control of insects, when some species oppress others, while not damaging and not affecting the plant in any way.

Reproduction of alpine currant

Shrub can be easily propagated in several ways: seeds, layers and lignified cuttings. In the first case, the best time for planting is spring or immediately after the ripening of berries. Seeds must be stratified. When spring sowing, its term should be 2-3 months. The optimal depth of embedding is 0.5 cm. You can sow immediately in the open ground on the prepared plot or in seedlings.

The most simple way of reproduction is cuttings. The material should be harvested from annual shoots of the first row of branching or basal. The length of the handle is 15-20 cm, the thickness is not less than 0.5 cm. The best time is the early autumn (September). Having started roots, young plants will have time to get stronger, and in the spring they will immediately start growing.

Also, the currant Alpine can be propagated by horizontal, arc and vertical layers. Rooted with branches and shoots with good growth, it is best two years. Perhaps the division of the currant bush.

At the moment there are many forms and varieties, we want to note the most common and famous.

Currant Alpine Schmidt

A compact bush variety with a dense branch. Leaves are three-lobed, in length up to 4 cm, saturated dark green color, in autumn they are painted in bright yellow tones. The time of flowering begins in May, small green flowers are collected in a brush. Later, non-edible spherical fruits appear. Berries ripen in July-August and stand out sharply on a dark green background, which adds even more decorative.

Currant Alpine Schmidt (photo above) grows slowly enough (up to 15 cm per year), so it is recommended to plant it as a hedge, in groups on the lawn or fringes. It is a bush-long-liver, grows up to 40 years. It is shade-tolerant, drought-resistant, frost-hardy. To the soil, Schmidt is demanding and prefers light and medium loam, sandy loamy soil. If you prefer to prepare a substrate for planting yourself, mix peat, sand and turf in a 1: 1: 1 ratio.

Currant Golden (alpine)

The name of the currant Alpine Golden got thanks to the characteristic color of the young leaves. This is a dwarfish shrub shape that grows to 1 meter in height. The golden alpine currant is most beautiful during flowering, when the bush is woven from lace. This impression is created due to the small pale yellow colors, located on short brushes. At the end of summer, the bush is covered with a lot of berries of juicy bright red color. They are tasteless, so the plant is used exclusively for decorative purposes. The soil requirements and other characteristics are similar to those of the previous grade.

Whatever your site is, large or small, light or in partial shade, the alpine currant (photos are presented in the article) will always come to the rescue at its gardening. Single or group plantings, a hedge, tapeworms with bright and juicy dark green foliage will become a real decoration. And in the autumn, the decorative forms will be painted purple or yellow, strewn with red berries.

Armed with a pruner, you can easily create from the elegant bushes a figured hedge, simple geometric shapes and complex compositions. Add to this the minimal care and high resistance of the species to various unfavorable environmental conditions.