We spent some time this winter trying to figure out if Ribes -- the family name of the plants that include gooseberries, currants and jostaberries -- can be grown in Concord. But plant catalogs say things like: "we cannot ship currant plants to DE, MA, ME, NC, NH, NJ, RI, WV or to MA without a permit." Or even:When ordering Gooseberries and Currants and Jostaberry: Currants, Gooseberries and Jostaberries are not shipped to NC, NH, RI. No Black Currants and partial restrictions on Currants and Jostaberries in NJ, ME, MI. Partial restrictions on Currants, Gooseberries and Jostaberries in MA, WV.Wow! A permit? Partial restrictions? What does it all mean? Our Natural Resources Department didn't know anything about a permit. This was a surprisingly difficult thing to unravel... here is what we learned.
There had been a federal ban on growing these Ribes because they serve as an intermediate host for the White Pine Blister Rust, introduced to the US around 1900. Over the years, resistant varieties of these berry plants were developed. In 1966, the ban was lifted, but different states adopted different laws regarding the import of the plants across or within their borders. Some states outright ban their growth, while others have no restrictions whatsoever. In Massachusetts, there is a ban on a partial basis per State statute (330 CMR: DEPARTMENT OF FOOD & AGRICULTURE). No one may grow black currants in MA. Otherwise, other currants and all gooseberries and jostaberries are allowed. This ban includes 137 cities and towns listed within this statue. If your municipality is not listed, you may receive a shipment of any Ribe save the black currant.
Concord is not on the state's list, which means we can grow the permitted Ribes here. However, Acton and Carlisle are on the list, and therefore are forbidden to. How this list was generated is anyone's guess, considering both of these towns are contiguous with Concord.
When a person orders red or white currant, or jostaberry or gooseberry plants of any color from a plant nursery/grower that offers them, the business contacts a particular State employee in the Division of Agriculture. She looks up the town the plants are being shipped to, and if it's not on the banned list, she faxes the nursery a "control area permit" for the purchase.
From what we gathered, this seems to need to happen for EACH and EVERY purchase to EVERY town that allows them. It would make more sense to us that a control area permit be issued once a season for each town to cover every place within that town. But no -- this is the State, and the art of bureaucracy is obviously not dead!Therefore, you'd probably never see these plants at our local drive-up nurseries because the control area permit would have to be issued before the customer could take them away. That just doesn't seem practical when everything on hand is available for immediate sale.
Mail order nurseries, such as Nourse Farms in Deerfield, MA seem like the best opportunity to secure some of these plants.
By the way: you might note that their website says that they grow black currants, but they cannot ship them within MA. When called, they said they do it by special permit, which just shows they may be the very exception that proves the rule.
