Barberry is a thorny perennial shrub from the Barberry family, which bears fruit with bright red berries. It is grown as a medicinal, ornamental and honey plant. The berries of this plant (some species) are used to make caramel, jelly, juice, jam and seasoning.
Plant description
In vivo occurs most often in the Northern Hemisphere. On average, bushes grow up to two meters. The bush has simple serrated leaves and spiky shoots. The plant begins to bear fruit from the third year after planting. From one bush collect up to 10 kg of berries. The plant is known for its many beneficial properties: the berries have a lot of vitamin C, the leaves contain malic acid, vitamins C, E. Oil is obtained from seeds. Roots and bark are used as a yellow dye.
Barberry: types and varieties
In nature, there are about five hundred species of this shrub - deciduous and evergreen specimens. Forty-five of them are cultivated in many countries. In our country, barberry is used in landscape design. Edible varieties belong to two types - Amur and ordinary.
Barberry ordinary
Shrubs of this species grow up to 2.5 m. They have spiny shoots, dark yellow in color, which diverge from the stem in different directions, forming arcs. The leaves are painted dark green, their lower part has a gray tint. Plants bloom in May – June. Inflorescences are drooping, racemose, fragrant yellow brushes.
Fruits this barberry in the fall, oblong, very beautiful berries with a sour taste. Their size is 1.2 cm. Due to the fact that the berries do not fall for a long time, the bushes for a long time retain decorative effect. Ordinary barberry is a frost and drought tolerant plant, which also tolerates air pollution.
This species must be planted in a well-lit area, but it can also develop well in partial shade. It is undemanding to soils, but this type of barberry develops better on light and non-acidic soils. Varieties, photos of its type are presented below.
The most popular are three varieties:
- Atropurpuria is a shrub with yellow flowers and berries (edible) of bright red color. The leaves are painted in a reddish-lilac color, provided that the plant is well lit. The variety tolerates temperature differences well, when propagated by seeds it does not always inherit a beautiful shade of leaves.
- Albovarigata is a low-growing variety that grows no more than a meter in height. Dark green foliage with stains.
- Aureomarginate is a special variety with variegated leaves. In the shade, the color intensity may be lost, the culture is photophilous.
Common barberry has one significant drawback - in wet and cold summers, the plant is often affected by fungal diseases: powdery mildew, rust, etc. In landscape design it is used in group and single plantings to create hedges.
Amur Barberry
This is a very large variety. Amur barberry grows up to three and a half meters under favorable conditions. The bushes have a wide spreading crown and large foliage (up to 8 cm in length). It changes color several times during the year: in spring it is emerald green, in autumn it is bright yellow or red.
Fruits this species in the fall. On the bushes appear bright red oblong and shiny berries with a diameter of one centimeter. Amur barberry is resistant to Fusarium and rust. It is often used for growing live, and rather high, hedges. The most popular varieties of this species are Orpheus, which is a compact, non-flowering bush (no more than a meter in height), and Japan, which attracts gardeners with long yellow inflorescences in the form of a brush and wide leaves.
Canadian barberry
It is a tall and sprawling shrub that grows up to 2.5 meters in height and up to 1.8 meters in diameter. The plant has dark red or brown shoots, small leaves (about three centimeters) oval in shape. In mid-May during the week it blooms with beautiful yellow inflorescences.
The fruiting is plentiful with red berries, the length of which does not exceed 0.9 cm. The fruits ripen in late September. This species loves sunny areas more than others, in the shade it quickly loses its decorativeness. Undemanding to the composition of the soil, frost-resistant and easily tolerates drought. The most popular varieties are Declinat, Rederian, Oxyphyll.
Korean barberry
Varieties of barberry of this species came to us from the Korean Peninsula. Bushes grow up to two meters. Leaves are painted in a beautiful red color. Fragrant flowers are collected in brushes of fifteen pieces. The berries are rather small, rounded, in diameter not exceeding one centimeter.
This species is not only highly drought tolerant, it tolerates a sharp short-term decrease in air temperature.
Coin Barberry
Heat-loving deciduous plant. Young plants often freeze and recover for quite some time after that. Bushes have a spreading crown. The plant does not grow more than two meters in height. The shoots are covered with large spines (up to 3 cm). The branches are dark red. Varieties of barberry of this species bloom in bright yellow flowers from late June to mid July.
Fruiting occurs in the second decade of September. Shiny bright red fruits are not large - no more than one centimeter in diameter. This species does not tolerate excess moisture at all - with stagnation of water, the root system withers and decays. Affected by rust.
Ottawa Barberry
This is a hybrid form of Atropurpurea barberry crossed with Thunberg barberry. Bushes grow up to two meters. It features unusual purple foliage, which turns red in early autumn. This species blooms in late May with yellow racemose inflorescences.
In care, this species is unpretentious. It tolerates winter without shelter. Resistant to major diseases of shrub plants. In decorative culture, the following varieties are most often used:
- Purpurea having red leaves.
- Superba, with dark red almost burgundy leaves.
- Auricoma, with bright red foliage.
- Silver Miles, having dark leaves covered with silver pattern.
Siberian barberry
As the name implies, this species is from Eastern and Western Siberia, the Middle East and Kazakhstan. Small bushes - no more than a meter in height. Varonberry varieties of this species enter fruiting and flowering only at the age of six.
Flowering begins in mid-May and lasts twelve days. Red oblong fruits appear in August. Siberian barberry is a species with medium winter hardiness. Due to its low decorativeness in culture, especially in our country, it is almost not used.
Barberry of Thunberg: varieties, description
This variety is small in height. In vivo grows in China and Japan. This species is recognized as the most decorative. Shoots at the bushes are densely branched, spreading. One of the advantages of the Thunberg barberry variety is the variety of colors. They are brown, red, yellowish.
Thunberg varieties of barberry are not eaten. And not because they are poisonous, but because they are quite bitter. Low-growing varieties of barberry Thunberg do not grow above one meter. In diameter, the bushes are sprawling (up to one and a half meters). Young, covered with large spines, yellow branches. Later they become red-brown or brown.
Depending on the season, leaves and leaves that are quite small in this species (no more than 3 cm) change their color. In the spring they are painted in bright green color, in the fall they acquire a noble burgundy color. Thunberg cultivars bloom in late May with yellow-red inflorescences. Fruits in autumn, and the berries can be stored on bushes throughout the winter, which significantly increases their decorative characteristics.
This species has many very interesting varieties (about 50). Among them:
- Bonarza Gold dwarf barberry attracts landscape designers of small height (up to 50 cm) and golden yellow leaves.
- Golden Rocket - different unusual columnar shape of the crown, golden leaves. The plant has many advantages: winter, wind and drought tolerance, shade tolerance, fast acclimatization in urban conditions.
- Barberry yellow varieties of Thunberg Aurea are quite compact (up to 0.8 m). Due to the rich yellow color of shoots, flowers and leaves, it looks very impressive in group plantings in combination with other varieties.
- Atropurpurea is a shrub up to one and a half meters high, with purple-red leaves, yellow flowers with red stains.
- Bagatelles are small bushes with a height of not more than 40 cm. They have a flat spherical crown shape, brown leaves, which become bright red by autumn. The variety is not winter-hardy.
- Atropurpurea Nana is a dwarf variety with a round and flat crown, 50 cm high. It is especially beautiful during flowering, when the bush is strewn with two-tone red-yellow flowers. They collect five buds in inflorescences.
- Coronita is another dwarf variety with a spherical crown. The leaves of this plant are painted green with a yellow border.
It is impossible not to mention the variegated varieties: Harlequin, Kelleris, Rose Glow, Kornik.
Yellow varieties
Despite the fact that for the most part the berries of barberry are painted in brilliant red color, there are exceptions. For example, varieties Lutea and Alba. Lutea - a variety of barberry ordinary. Deciduous shrub up to 2 meters high. The shoots of the plant are saturated yellow. Quite long (up to six centimeters) leaves are painted in a salad color with a red edging. Twenty flowers are combined in a brush. Ripened fruits about a centimeter long pale yellow in color. We have already talked about varieties of barberry with leaves and yellow shoots.
In conclusion, it should be recognized that it is almost impossible to single out the best variety of barberry. The choice of a plant suitable for you largely depends on how you are going to use it (food use, landscape design). In addition, you should consider the climate of your region, since not all varieties can tolerate cold winters.