Plant barberry (lat. Berberis) belongs to a large genus of shrubs and trees of the Barberry family. The genus name comes from the Arabic "beiberi", meaning "shell-shaped". Barberries are widespread mainly in the mountainous areas of the Northern Hemisphere and number about 170 species, some of which have been introduced into cultivation. For gardeners, barberry is of interest as a raw material base for the production of drinks, jams, home remedies, but the decorative qualities of this plant do not go unnoticed by lovers of beauty - the color of the leaves of varietal barberries is varied, in addition to green, they can be yellow, purple, variegated, spotted and even with a border. Barberries also differ in size - from large bushes three meters high to dwarf bushes no higher than 30 cm.
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Planting and caring for barberry (in brief)
- Landing: if necessary in the fall, during leaf fall, but best in the spring, as soon as the snow melts.
- Lighting: bright sunlight or partial shade.
- The soil: neutral, the composition does not matter much.
- Mulching: desirable.
- Watering: During the season with normal rainfall, barberry does not require moisture, but if there is a drought, water the plant once a week at the root. Newly planted bushes also need weekly watering.
- Feeding: a year after planting and then every 3-4 years in early spring, the plant is fed with nitrogen fertilizers, and after flowering and in the fall - with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers.
- Trimming: The first time the procedure is carried out in the spring on a one-year-old bush, then barberry is used for sanitary purposes, and to form the crown it is pruned twice a year: in the first half of June and in early August. The crowns of low-growing species and varieties need not be formed.
- Reproduction: seeds and vegetatively: layering, dividing the bush and cuttings.
- Pests: barberry aphids, sawflies and flower moths.
- Diseases: rust, powdery mildew, bacteriosis, wilting, drying out of shoots and leaf spotting.
Read more about growing barberry below.
Barberry bush - description
The barberry shrub is a deciduous, evergreen or semi-evergreen thorny plant with alternate, simple, and sometimes leathery leaves. Barberry spines are modified leaves, of which only the midrib remains. In the axil of the thorn, such short shoots develop that the barberry leaves grow in the form of bunches. On the current year's shoots, the leaves are arranged in a spiral, singly. Barberry flowers are small, fragrant, yellow-golden or orange with red hues included - usually collected in a corymbose or racemose inflorescence, but sometimes they are solitary. Each petal has two nectaries.
The smell of blooming barberry attracts bees - barberry is an excellent honey plant. Barberry fruits vary in color and shape, which depend on the type and variety of the plant. Barberry tolerates urban conditions well, any soil is suitable for it, it is drought-resistant and completely unpretentious. Barberry is the best shrub for a hedge.
Planting barberry
When to plant barberry
Barberry is most often planted in the spring, as soon as the soil thaws, but you need to have time to plant the seedlings before the buds open. In rare cases, barberry is planted in the fall, during the period of mass leaf fall. Due to the unpretentiousness of barberry, it can grow in open areas, since it is not afraid of drafts and strong winds, as well as in partial shade, but under the bright sun, varieties and species with purple leaves look brighter. As for soil acidity, barberry prefers neutral soils, but can easily withstand soil with a pH no higher than 7.
If the soil on the site is very acidic, it needs to be limed. This can be done in advance or directly during planting by pouring into the planting hole a mixture of 8-10 kg of humus or compost and garden soil, 100 g of superphosphate, 400 g of slaked lime and 200 g of wood ash.
How to plant barberry
When planting alone, the distance between the bushes is kept from one and a half to two meters, but if you decide to plant a barberry hedge, then two bushes are planted per linear meter. The size of the holes for seedlings, which need to be dug 2-3 weeks before planting, is approximately 40x40, and a trench for a hedge is dug about 40 cm deep. To increase the aeration of the roots, a layer of sand is poured onto the bottom of the trench or each hole.
If the pH value of the soil is slightly shifted towards the alkaline side, neutral or slightly acidic, then the mixture, the composition of which is indicated in the previous section, but without lime and ash, is poured into the hole before planting. Then a barberry seedling is lowered into the hole, sprinkled with soil, compacted, watered abundantly, and then the tree trunk circle is mulched with peat or compost. After planting, the above-ground part of the seedling is cut off, leaving only a part with 3-5 well-developed buds.
Barberry care
How to care for barberry
Even a novice gardener can plant and care for barberry, and it doesn’t really matter what species it belongs to, since planting and caring for Thunberg barberry, for example, which is a purely decorative species due to its too bitter fruits, is not much different from caring for for species bearing edible berries. So, once you have learned the instructions for caring for barberry, you can grow barberry in the garden of various varieties, types and shapes.
The list of necessary work for caring for barberry includes timely watering, weeding, loosening the soil on the site, pruning and fertilizing.
Water barberry does not need a normal amount of precipitation, and only in extreme heat and drought the soil in the area with barberry still needs to be moistened weekly - with cold water at the root, trying not to get on the leaves. Newly planted bushes are watered with the same regularity until they take root. What is more dangerous for barberry is not dryness, but frequent and heavy rains, due to which moisture can accumulate in the roots, which the plant fears much more than drought.
Promptly remove weeds from the area, as well as root shoots that grow abundantly around barberry bushes, and do not forget to loosen the soil. To make caring for barberry easier, mulch the area with peat, sawdust or walnut shells.
Barberry fertilizer
Fertilizers added to the soil when planting will last the barberry for a year. Next spring, each barberry bush is fed with nitrogen fertilizer in the form of a solution of 20-30 g of urea in a bucket of water. From now on, it will be enough to apply nitrogen fertilizers once every three to four years, but if you grow barberry for its healthy edible berries, then after flowering and at the end of the season you need to feed the bush with phosphorus and potassium - 10 g of potassium fertilizer and 15 g each superphosphate for each bush.
The optimal complex fertilizer for barberry is the Kemira-universal solution, which is applied in early July at the rate of 15 g per bucket of water.
Barberry pruning
Like other garden shrubs, when pruning barberry, weak, dry shoots that thicken the bush are removed. The first pruning of decorative barberry species is carried out in the spring on a one-year-old bush, shortening the shoots by half or even two-thirds; then the bush is pruned twice a year - in the first half of June and in early August. In addition to its sanitary function, pruning also has a formative meaning. Low-growing varieties and types of barberry do not need to be cut.
Pests and diseases of barberry
Among the harmful insects, the plant can be affected by barberry aphids, barberry sawflies and flower moths. The appearance of aphids is detected by wrinkling and drying of the leaves, and the moth is more dangerous for barberries with edible berries, since it eats away the fruits. Aphids can be fought with a solution of laundry soap (300 g of soap per 10 liters of water), and moths, like sawfly caterpillars, are poisoned with a one to three percent solution of Chlorophos.
Among the diseases, barberries most often suffer from fungal diseases, including powdery mildew, rust, bacteriosis, leaf spot And withering.
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Barberry (Berberis) is a large ornamental bush, or less commonly a tree, belonging to the Barberry family (Berberidaceae). Many gardeners prefer to plant this decorative and relatively unpretentious perennial in their dacha.
Barberry is a large ornamental bush, or less commonly a tree, belonging to the Barberry family.
An evergreen, semi-evergreen or deciduous shrub plant, rarely a small tree with thin, erect and ribbed, branching shoots covered with brownish-gray or brownish-gray bark. The buds are bare or scaly. The foliage is of regular arrangement, collected in bunches for short shoots.
The foliage is ovate, lanceolate, elliptical or obovate, articulated with shortened petioles. The flowers are racemose, and after flowering, elliptical, ovoid or almost spherical fruits and berries of black or red color are formed.
Varieties of barberry (video)
Where and how does the barberry bush grow?
The perennial is popular in garden culture, and also grows in natural conditions in St. Petersburg, the southern and middle parts of European countries, in the Crimea and the Caucasus, in Persia and North America. Some varieties have become quite widespread in Central Asia, which is due to the winter hardiness and good heat resistance of the plant.
Popular types and varieties of barberry
In accordance with the official data indicated by The Plant List, more than five hundred species belong to this genus.
Barberry Thunberg
One of the most common and popular species among amateur flower growers, which is distinguished by its high decorative properties and relative ease of care.
Barberry Thunberg Barberry Thunberg Red Rocket
Red Rocket is a variety with red leaves, a columnar crown shape and a height of the above-ground part of no more than a meter. The branches are arranged horizontally and upward, covered with abundant and shortened branches. The foliage is red. It is characterized by an average level of winter hardiness.
Golden ring
The Golden ring variety has dark purple foliage with an elegant and sophisticated golden-yellow edge. The perennial is not prone to freezing and is perfect for decorating border groups and regularly trimmed hedges.
Barberry Golden Ring Aurea
The difference between Aurea is the correct shape of the aerial part, as well as relative short stature and slow growth. The perennial is characterized by excellent compatibility with most barberry varieties. The foliage is diamond-shaped and yellow or golden-orange in color, varying with the seasons.
Nana
Nana is a popular and widespread variety, represented by a small and fairly compact in size, cushion-shaped perennial shrub with decorative and abundant foliage, as well as a height of the above-ground part of up to 50-60 cm.
Barberry Nana Bagatelle
The varietal feature of Bagatelle is the spherical and rather compact shape of the crown with minor branches and a large amount of rich reddish-brown foliage with a characteristic ovoid shape.
Orange dream
Orange Dream is a variety with a dwarf and evergreen aerial part, just over half a meter in height, with fairly thin and widely spread lanceolate leaves of a rich orange-red or burgundy-red color.
Barberry Orange dream Admiral (Admiration)
The varietal feature of Admirаl or Admirаtion is represented by the small size of the shrub, which has a rounded and rather dense, but not uniform crown. Small needles are located on fairly short and faceted brown branches, and an edible crop is formed in the form of bright red fruits and berries.
Atropurporea is a branched shrub plant with a height and diameter of no more than two meters with hanging lateral branches. The foliage is bright red, partially turning yellow in autumn. A shade-tolerant and very common variety in our country, the frozen and old branches of which are cut off at the root in the spring. Propagated by bush division and using stem layering.
Barberry ottawa
Berberis ottawensis is a decorative perennial deciduous shrub no more than two meters high, with few and soft thorns. The foliage is obovate, whole or serrated, yellow or purple in color. The flowers are yellow, collected in attractive inflorescences. After flowering, ovoid and red fruits are formed.
Superba
Superba is a decorative perennial with a height and crown diameter of no more than 400 cm with rounded leaves of a dark red color with a bluish summer bloom. Flowering in the last ten days of May, yellowish-red in color, collected in racemes. The fruits are bright red, ripening in mid-autumn.
Barberry Superba Purpurea
Purpurea is an ornamental shrub plant with fairly well-defined branching and a height of the above-ground part of just over one and a half meters. The foliage is purplish-red at the beginning of the season, followed by a coral tint in the fall.
Silver Miles
Silver Miles is a variety with purple foliage, the color of which contains dirty gray spots and stripes of varying sizes and shapes. At a short distance, the above-ground part of the bush has a very characteristic lilac hue.
Barberry Silver Miles Barberry Amur
Verb.amurensis is a shrubby, low-branched, prickly plant characterized by light green, purple and dark red leaves and yellowish spines, as well as the formation of racemose multi-flowered inflorescences, represented by pendulous and pale yellow, fragrant flowers.
Siberian barberry
The Verb.sibirica variety is no more than a meter high, with strong branching, gray or brownish shoots and shortened leaves close together. The foliage is leathery, with a very pronounced oblong-ovate and subulate-toothed shape. The spines are clearly visible. The flowers are yellow in color, single type, with ovate and obtuse sepals.
Siberian barberry
Common barberry
Verb.vulgaris is a variety with faceted and straight-growing shoots, yellowish or yellow-purple and whitish-gray in color, as well as with alternate thin leaves of a very characteristic obovate or elliptical shape. The spines are relatively medium in size. Racemose inflorescences are collected from yellow flowers, represented by sepals and obovate petals.
Barberry coin
A distinctive feature of Verb.nummularia is that it is a shrubby perennial no more than 400 cm high, with strong branching, brownish or purple branches with a bluish tint. The foliage is leathery, almost round, entire-marginal or slightly toothed, with characteristic spines at the apical part and a wedge-shaped narrowing at the base. Spikes of simple or triple type.
Racemose inflorescences are multi-flowered, axillary type. After flowering, ovoid-spherical red fruits are formed.
Barberry coin Barberry spherical
The Verb.sphaerocara or heteropod variety grows very prominently and has grayish-green foliage. The main difference from other varieties is the color and shape of the fruit. Ripe berries are spherical in shape, dark blue in color with a bluish coating.
Gallery: types of barberry (61 photos)
Features of planting barberry in the country
When planting a decorative perennial garden crop, it is very important to make the right choice of location, as well as to carefully observe the planting regime and the technology for all subsequent care, taking into account the botanical characteristics of the plant.
Selection and preparation of a landing site
The shrubby perennial can easily take root in almost any type of soil. The plant does not require any complex or special care, but has some features due to its botanical characteristics. The place for growing shrubs should be fairly open. The culture tolerates wind and drafts well, which can be considered an undeniable advantage.
However, it is advisable to plant ornamental varieties and varieties with bright foliage in areas with maximum sunlight. It is recommended to grow green-leaved perennial varieties in partial shade. The shrub is unpretentious to basic soil characteristics, but on excessively acidic soils the crop may die. If the soil is acidic, lime should be added. The culture looks very good in group plantings.
How to grow barberry (video)
Timing and technology for planting garden barberry
Planting seedlings must begin in early spring, immediately after the snow melts. The fact is that the decorative perennial wakes up very early, and it is for this reason that all planting activities must be completed before the buds swell and active sap flow.
Planting holes need to be prepared a couple of weeks before planting seedlings. The dimensions of the hole are 40x40 cm with a depth of about 45 cm. In order to improve the supply of oxygen to the root system, a layer of sand 50-60 mm thick must be poured onto the bottom of the hole.
A nutritious soil mixture is added to the pre-prepared planting holes, represented by a bucket of compost or humus, a bucket of high-quality garden soil, a glass of superphosphate, four glasses of slaked lime, and a couple of glasses of ordinary wood ash.
Planting seedlings must begin in early spring, immediately after the snow melts Secrets of caring for barberry
Errors in caring for barberry negatively affect not only the growth processes, significantly slowing them down, but can also cause disease or death of the ornamental crop.
Frequency and rules of watering
Barberries belong to the category of hardy and unpretentious plants, but the greatest decorative effect can only be achieved with proper organization of irrigation measures. If there is insufficient natural precipitation, during irrigation it is necessary to soak the soil to a depth of two shovels. Watering is carried out carefully, to the very root, without water getting on the foliage. After irrigation activities, shallow loosening is performed. Mulching the tree trunk circles with organic matter gives very good results.
Top dressing
Barberries do not need to be fertilized too often. The first fertilizing is given a year after planting, and then fertilizers are applied every three years. In spring, the focus is on nitrogen-containing fertilizers and organic matter. In mid-summer, it is advisable to fertilize the plant with a special complex preparation “Kemira-universal” diluted at the rate of 15 g per bucket of water. In autumn, potassium-phosphorus fertilizers can be applied to the soil.
How to propagate barberry (video)
Trimming Features
Sanitary pruning is performed regularly, which allows you to remove diseased, dry, thinned branches from the bush. It is also very important to systematically thin out the crown in case of excessive thickening. New shoots should grow sufficiently long, well developed and powerful, which has a positive effect on the strength of flowering and the quality of fruiting. Decorative pruning is carried out on absolutely healthy and fairly lush bushes, and gives the plant the appearance of various figures or sculptural compositions.
Pruning is carried out only with very clean and well-sharpened garden tools. All removed diseased branches must be burned and removed from the site without fail.
Preparing barberry for winter
Particular attention is paid to the proper preparation for winter of the deciduous Thunberg barberry, which is less winter-hardy. At the preparation stage, all plant debris and old mulch are removed. Then the plant is earthed up, the soil is mulched with peat chips, humus or compost mass, in a layer of 10 cm. Young shrubs need additional shelter. The branches are tied together with rope and covered with burlap or any non-woven material folded in three layers.
Additional protection for barberry can be provided by ordinary spruce branches.
Attention, TODAY only!
From the standpoint of planting a shrub in your own garden, Thunberg's barberry is a very easy-to-care and grateful plant: barberry is not afraid of summer heat and drought, tolerates winter well, and grows in poor soils. Can serve as a decorative hedge against uninvited guests. Homemade preparations are made from the berries: jam, pastille, compote, marinade, liqueurs.
Varieties and varieties of Thunberg barberry
Of the entire barberry family, Thunberg's species stands out for its many advantages. Firstly, it is highly decorative, and secondly, this species is resistant to powdery mildew and rust. Gas and smoke resistant, tolerates shaping haircuts well. No other barberry has such a variety of varieties. They all differ in the shape and size of the crown, the color of the leaf plate and the growth rate, as can be seen in the photo.
- Atropurpurea Nana is the most popular dwarf variety with purple leaves.
Variety Atropurpurea Nana
- Red Pilar - has a columnar crown shape. Its reddish-purple foliage turns scarlet towards the end of the growing season.
Variety Red Pilar
- Golden Ring - the leaf plate of this variety has a coral color with a golden border along the edges. Reaches 3 m in height.
Variety Golden Ring
- Aurea - reaches 1.5 m, leaves are golden or yellow.
Variety Aurea
- Kobold is a dwarf variety with green leaves. The crown has the shape of a ball. Can replace boxwood. Requires shelter for the winter.
Variety Kobold
- Green carpet - the height of the bush reaches 50 cm. The foliage is green in summer and red in autumn.
Variety Green Carpet
- Kornik - this 1.5 m tall variety goes well with roses and conifers. The leaves are green with white spots in summer, and the green color turns red in autumn.
Variety Kornik
Thanks to their thorns, high varieties form impenetrable hedges in the form of ribbons of varying lengths. Looks great as a border and can replace boxwood in cold regions. Suitable for creating a rocky garden and strengthening slopes. Low varieties go well with conifers and perennial flowers.
Landing
Barberry is undemanding to its growing location. It can grow well in open areas and in partial shade. However, varieties with purple leaves may lose their decorative value in the shade.
Barberry prefers to grow in soils with neutral acidity; wood ash or lime must be added to soils with high acidity. The most important thing for barberry is the absence of moisture stagnation.
Barberry is planted in early spring, before buds begin to bloom. If the bushes are planted singly, the distance between them should be from 1.5 to 2 meters. The planting hole for one plant is about 50 x 50 cm and 35 cm deep. When laying a hedge, two seedlings are planted per meter. It is better to dig a trench for planting the hedge. To improve the respiration of the root ball, sprinkle the bottom with sand and fill the hole with nutritious soil with the addition of humus and wood ash. Water and compact the soil.
Proper planting is a guarantee of proper plant development
The tree trunk circle is mulched with humus, leaves or any organic material. In order for the plant to take root well, cut off the above-ground part, leaving 3 to 5 buds. Watering barberry is necessary when planting and once every 10 days until the seedling is accepted.
Barberry seedlings purchased in a container can be planted at any time except winter - they take root well, since the root system is not damaged.
Advice. Use only fully ripened barberries; unripe ones can be poisonous.
Fertilizer and feeding
In the first year after planting, you do not need to apply any additional fertilizers; the barberry will need only those added to the planting hole. Next year, in early spring, feed the bush with a urea solution or any fertilizer with a high dose of nitrogen. Then fertilize once every 4 years:
- in spring - nitrogenous;
- in autumn - phosphorus and potassium.
Barberry propagation
Barberry is propagated by different methods: seeds, cuttings, layering and dividing the bush. Each of these methods is convenient in its own way, choose the most suitable one.
Barberry seeds
Propagation by seeds. Select ripe berries, separate the seeds from the pulp, disinfect them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate and dry. The seeds are sown in the seedling to a depth of 1 cm. In the spring, the young seedlings are thinned out so that there is a distance of about 3 cm between the sprouts. Two-year-old seedlings are planted in a permanent place. In a couple of years, the young bushes will bear the first berries. In order to sow seeds in spring, they must be stratified for a long time at a temperature of 2 to 5 degrees.
Propagation by cuttings. For this method you will need a greenhouse or school. Cuttings are harvested in June. It is better to do this early in the morning, before the heat sets in. The leaves are removed from the cuttings, leaving only at the top, shortened by half. Place the cuttings in a bucket with root solution for several hours to stimulate root formation. The cuttings are planted in a schoolhouse in fertile, moist soil. For the first two weeks, carefully monitor soil moisture and timely ventilation. As with the first method, cuttings are planted in a permanent place after two years.
Adult bushes are easily propagated by layering
Reproduction by layering. In early spring, select the strongest shoot, place it in an earthen ditch and pin it. The end of the shoot should be above the ground. The part that you will dig in can be lightly scratched for faster root formation. In the fall, the finished seedling can be transplanted to a permanent location.
Dividing the bush Mainly low-growing varieties of Thunberg barberry are propagated. To do this, choose bushes 3 to 5 years old, which branch from ground level. In early spring, the bush is completely dug up and divided with a saw. Try to injure the root system as little as possible. Treat the sections with a weak solution of manganese or sprinkle with charcoal. Plant the divisions.
Advice. Barberries bear fruit only with cross-pollination. Plant at least two varieties per site.
Agricultural technology and barberry care
Barberry needs watering only during severe drought in the first years of life. In the future, a strong root system itself is capable of providing the plant with water. Watering is carried out at the root with warm water.
Most varieties of Thunberg barberry do not require pruning. Usually this is only sanitary pruning of frozen and thickening shoots, as well as excess growth. Varieties with a loose crown are formed by shortening protruding shoots. Low-growing varieties do not need to be trimmed at all. To create a hedge, barberry is cut in June and a second time in August.
To give a decorative shape, barberry can be cut
Barberry tolerates frosts very well down to -35 degrees, but in the first winter it is better to cover young bushes with spruce branches or dry leaves for the winter, especially varieties with an evergreen crown.
Advice. The berries of most varieties of Thunberg barberry contain alkaloids, so they are bitter and are not eaten. But birds willingly feast on berries in winter.
Diseases and pests
One of the most dangerous pests of barberry is the barberry aphid. The affected leaves of the plant wrinkle and dry out. The insect can be seen on the underside of the leaf; the body of the pest is reddish-yellow. An increase in the colony of insects harms the plant: the leaves curl and fall off, the shoots do not lay next year’s flower buds and become bent. In the spring, spray barberry with a solution of laundry soap or tobacco infusion.
The flower moth feeds on barberry fruits. Treatment with fufanon or decis will help here.
Fungal diseases are much more dangerous to plant health. They are more difficult to fight, and barberry is affected by them more often than by insects.
Advice. When working with chemicals, do not forget about your own safety and protection of the respiratory system, eyes and skin.
Planting Barberry Thunberg and caring for the shrub will not cause any trouble, but the aesthetic pleasure from its beauty in your garden will exceed all expectations.
Thunberg's barberry in landscape design: video
Barberry Thunberg: photo
It's starting to lose its color.
Barberry – decorative and fruit bush, barberry berries are living candies: they cool, sweeten and sour, in addition, they are used to make jams, preserves, compotes and tinctures. Juice from barberry berries has pronounced antibacterial and antipyretic properties. Barberry leaves are used for marinades; their infusion can be used as an anti-inflammatory agent for diseases of the biliary tract and liver.
Types of barberry: diversity and attractiveness
Despite the fact that the barberry bush is quite a long-standing and well-known “guest” in our front gardens, it is now experiencing a new surge of interest in itself. Today, a wide variety of varieties of barberry have appeared: creeping forms are used to strengthen and camouflage slopes, pyramidal types are used to create coolers, and individual specimens with bright leaves are used for solitaire plantings.
Of more than 170 types, we present the most popular:
- common barberry - a branched shrub growing up to 3 m in height. The shoots are erect, abundantly strewn with thorns, the leaves are saturated green colors. The flowers are bright yellow, collected in racemes, with a delicate honey aroma. In the first year the branches are yellow or yellowish-purple, which in the second year change color to greyish -white. Fruiting is abundant, annual, the berries are bright red, edible, although species with yellow and even white fruits are cultivated. The species is perfectly adapted to urban conditions, tolerates numerous prunings, and is very frost-resistant. Undemanding to soil, not picky about lighting conditions, although it develops better in good lighting
- barberry thunberg - a low (up to 1 m) deciduous shrub that thrives in the polluted atmosphere of a modern metropolis. Drought-resistant, not picky about soil composition. The leaves are small, oblong, graceful, reach a length of up to 3 cm, bright green, the lower part is glaucous, in the fall they change color to bright red, yellow, orange and even violet. Young shoots have an attractive color - purple-red, yellowish or bright red; with age they become brown or purple-brown.
- The branches are abundantly covered with hard (about 1 cm) thorns, so in landscape design this species is often used to create impassable hedges. And since the bush easily tolerates pruning, it is easy to maintain their correct shape. In addition, it is often used in Japanese and stone, on the banks reservoirs, in landscape compositions. Flowering lasts 8-12 days, the flowers are single, reddish outside, yellow inside. In autumn, impressive-looking fruits appear - elliptical in shape, coral-red, shiny, but at the same time absolutely inedible
- barberry Maria - one of the many varieties of Thunberg barberry, with a dense columnar crown reaching a width of 50 cm. Shoots are straight, vertical, low-branched, can reach a height of 90-100 cm. Leaves are golden yellow, with a carmine-red border along the edges, in autumn they acquire an expressive bright orange-red color
- barberry orange – presented in two varieties. Orange Rocket attracts with its bright two-tone color - young leaves and shoots are orange, which “with age” become beet color, and with the onset of autumn they change color to red. Orange Dream is a low shrub with a spreading crown. It is especially good in the fall - its leaves turn bright red and do not fall off until frost. The bush is “blazing”, diluting the grayness of the pre-winter garden
- barberry golden – will become a bright spot of sunshine on your site. This is a small (up to 50 cm in height, crown diameter does not exceed 1 m) bush with a cushion-shaped dense crown that remains attractive throughout the growing season. The color of the leaves depends on the degree of illumination and ranges from light green to golden yellow. Differs in very insignificant annual growth
- barberry Atropurpurea – a medium-tall (1.5-1.8 meters) shrub that retains spectacular, richly colored purple red-brown leaves throughout the season. Flowering occurs at the beginning of June and lasts, on average, 12 days. Propagates well - rooting of summer cuttings is almost 100%, seed germination is 90%
- barberry superba – a fairly large (can reach 4 m in height and diameter) ornamental shrub. In summer the leaves are dark red, with a bluish bloom, change color to orange and bright red in the fall. The bright red berries that ripen in September and are densely distributed throughout the bush also add to the attractiveness of the bush. Flowering occurs in May, the flowers are red-yellow, collected in racemose inflorescences up to 5 cm long
- barberry rocket - a purple-leaved columnar variety with vertical shoots and short branches. Leaves are red-brown. Looks impressive when planted alone against a backdrop of bright greenery.
- barberry ed – red-leaved varieties of barberries, which include Red Chief, Red Pillar, Red Carpet, etc.
Barberry: planting and care
Despite the variety of barberry species and their differences, they all require the same planting and care conditions. First of all, you should take care of the illumination of the area - in order to get bright foliage of saturated colors, barberry must receive enough Sveta. In partial shade, the brightness of color and varietal characteristics begin to be lost, all leaves acquire a greenish tint. The exception is the yellow barberry "Aurea", the leaves of which can burn in the sun, so it is preferable to choose partial shade for it.
The soil
The two main requirements are good drainage (barberry does not tolerate stagnant water) and soil of normal acidity. On peaty acidic soils, liming will be required - when planting under a bush, add 300-400 g of lime and 200 g of wood ash. It doesn’t hurt to add sand - this will improve aeration.
Advice! To obtain a hedge, barberry is planted at the rate of 2 bushes per linear meter. When planting alone, maintain a distance of at least 2 m between bushes.
Care
Barberry needs constant loosening (weeding) of the soil under the bushes - this will improve the structure of the soil and its aeration, and protect it from waterlogging. Under the crown, you can mulch the soil - with sawdust, peat, etc.
Advice! Since barberry is cross-pollinated, to obtain berries it is necessary to plant several bushes nearby.
Top dressing
Barberries are fertilized in the spring in the second year after planting, adding nitrogen fertilizers - 25-30 g of urea per bucket of water. The next feeding is carried out only after 3-4 years
Watering
The barberry bush does not need frequent watering; the moisture obtained from natural precipitation will be enough for it. In case of severe drought, it is recommended to water once a week with warm water, directing the stream strictly to the root.
Trimming
Quite a troublesome operation, primarily due to the abundance of thorns. In the spring, after wintering, they carry out sanitary pruning - remove all frozen, broken, damaged, diseased, dry and weak shoots, treating the cut areas with garden varnish. It is worth remembering that flowering and fruit formation in barberry occurs on 2-year-old branches, which after fruiting can be pruned until the cold weather. When creating hedges, bushes are pruned starting from the 2nd year of planting. Low-growing barberry varieties practically do not need pruning, with the exception of diseased and dried branches.