1. From my mother, Invergordon, Ross-shire, 1950s: We were never allowed to pick or take flowering currant into the house as it was bad luck [e-mail, September 2013].

2.  I have … heard my mother say that a bush called flowering currant, very pretty with pink flowers, is unlucky to take indoors [Inverness, April 2007].

3. My wife will not have the red flowering currant in the house; many years ago her mother said it would bring bad luck to the house (no other explanation) [Shavington, Cheshire, March 1983].

Images: main, cultivated,  Thirlmere Road, Streatham, London Borough of Lambeth, March 2014; inset, cultivated, Tisbury, Wiltshire, April 2016.