Blackcurrants are a wonderful food source. The International Blackcurrant Assosiation writes: “They are part of the select group of superfruits […] the berries have an extremely high content of vitamin C, anthocyanins and polyphenols”. And if you don’t like the slightly sharp taste, there is hope in milder varieties. ‘Ben Tron’ in particular is noticeably mild and sweet, at the same time that it is somewhat earlier both in leaf growth and maturation than e.g. ‘Narve Viking’, which is also a lesser-known Norwegian variety that we can recommend.
We have worked with several varieties in recent years which also have another great advantage: upright growth. We all know the old varieties that stand around in older gardens with branches hanging so that half the crop almost has to be dug out from the grass. Modern breeding has brought in the characteristics from wild populations, where the bush is usually quite vertical, while the berry size and good taste have been retained. The Ben cultivars from The Hutton Institute (formerly SCRI) in Scotland excel, but also many of the results of the central variety developer Johannes Øydvin’s work are very good. He is also behind the most famous in the trade in Norway, ‘Hedda’ and ‘Kristen’. We don’t focus on these, but think it’s fun to be able to fill in the picture with slightly less well-known cultivars. All our stock plants come from Sagablant, and we pay variety tax per sold plant.
The ones we have will be available in the online store when we have enough stock. On request, we can also supply cuttings (approx. 20 cm) which are taken in the winter if we have enough.
- ‘Ben Alder‘ (Available August 2022)
- ‘Ben Hope‘ (available from 2023)
- ‘Ben Nare‘ (available from 2023)
- ‘Ben Tron‘ (Available August 2022)
- ‘Narve Viking‘ (available in August 2022)
- ‘Håkon‘ (available from 2023)
- ‘Sunniva‘ (available from 2023)
Sist oppdatert 2023-11-09 av Bi-O