This easy to grow shrub is cheering me up on a cold, wet day as I look out from my kitchen window.

Planted against a backdrop of an ivy hedge, the dangling pure white flowers show up really well as does the fresh green foliage that is starting to emerge. Two weeks ago, when we were treated to extraordinary warm sunshine, fat bumblebees flew noisily round the shrub making the most of this early food plant.

Black fruits follow on from the flowers – the Ribes family are currants after all and there is that distinctive blackcurrant smell about the foliage which I love. But don’t think of growing this for its fruits as they’re hairy and not like a culinary blackcurrant. Leave them for the birds!

Planted in sun or semi shade, in any type of reasonable soil, this shrub will grow to 1.8m (6ft). It has an RHS award of garden merit and requires minimal maintenance. I occasionally prune out some branches just to keep it in check in my border, but that’s my choice and pruning can be just the cutting out of any dead wood.

A rewarding hardy shrub that flowers from March to April.