This week's beauty is Ribes roezlii or Sierra Gooseberry, a west coast native shrub. I fell in love with it because of the winter-blooming tiny fuchsia-like flowers and bought me a one gallon plant at Seven Oaks Nursery in 2018.
My plant is in full bloom right now.
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| Ribes roezlii gleaming in the sun |
Notice the bright red sepals when the sun is shining on them, contrasted with the dark red when it's not, below.
What was surprising to me is how tiny the flowers are. Check out my daughter's hand holding the penny for scale.
The evergreen leaves are also tiny and slightly glossy. And then there are the thorns!
This is not an easy plant to photograph.
There are red berries that ripen later in the summer but I haven't seen them yet on my plant.
This Ribes seems to be a slow grower and mine is still in a pot. Eventually I'll find a semi-shady spot for it and let it take off. If I don't kill it first. So far, so good.
Native plants are all the rage right now. This is good news because it means more of them will be for sale at nurseries!
Do you grow any native plants?
