Plant in sun or light shade along coast to shade inland. It is drought tolerant and like the species should be reliably root hardy to around 10° F. Requiring little supplemental water, this native shrub is a good candidate for planting underneath an oak canopy.

Ribes viburnifolium is native to Santa Catalina Island and extreme coastal southern California into Baja California, where it can be found growing in full to part shade. It is considered to be a rare and endangered plant in the wild. The name Ribes comes from the Syrian or Kurdish 'ribas', a name for other plants in this genus and the specific epithet means "leaves like Viburnum". Other common names include Viburnumleaf Currant, Catalina Perfume and Evergreen Currant. This 'Spooner's Mesa' selection, which we named and introduced into the nursery trade in 1998, has larger leaves giving the plant a fuller and denser appearance. It was collected on Spooner's Mesa in southern San Diego County along the Tijuana River estuary near to Mexican border by Dylan Hannon, now curator of the conservatory at the Huntington Botanical Gardens but the working at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. We also grow the more typical Catalina Island from that we list as Ribes viburnifolium. 

The information displayed on this page about Ribes viburnifolium 'Spooner's Mesa' is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.