In the winter of the plant's first season, remove at ground level all but two or three stems. Continue this each season, but by the fourth winter start cutting away at their bases any stems more than three years old. Each winter also shorten long stems that have grown too scraggly. Do not prune after spring growth has commenced. Plants can be trained to a number of utilitarian and decorative forms.
Currant seeds germinate if stratified for three to four months at temperatures just above freezing.
Seedlings are prolific and do not vary much from parent. Bushes grown from seed bear when two or three years old. Currants are easily propagated by hardwood cuttings of one-year old wood. Take one-foot cuttings of dormant wood in late winter, dip the base in rooting hormone and pot in ordinary soil. Cuttings will quickly root and are best kept in part shade for the first year.