Barberry is a universal plant used for various purposes. Gardeners appreciate it for small berries with a sour taste, serving as a wonderful seasoning in cooking, marinades and pickles, the basis for compotes. Landscape designers choose a shrub as a bright element in the design, it is especially good in autumn and summer against the background of dense conifers or in a single planting.
Barberry: description and varieties
A fairly extensive genus includes mainly shrubs, rarely trees. Plants are highly resistant to heat, tolerate even poor soils and grow quickly, which allows them to be used to create hedges. This is also facilitated by the fact that the propagation of barberry by cuttings in spring or summer is fast and in most cases successful, which allows new plants to be obtained in a short time without hassle. Representatives of the genus are low shrubs and trees, deciduous, semi- or evergreen.
The most famous are the following types:
- Barberry ordinary. It is a vigorous (up to 3 m), abundantly branching shrub. Barberry is popular in culture and unpretentious in leaving. Reproduction by cuttings or dividing the bush is not difficult. Characteristic high frost resistance. Several forms with decorative leaves, including Alba variegata, have been bred.
- Barberry of Thunberg (pictured above). Deciduous shrub up to 2.5 m high and arched branches falling to the ground. It is appreciated for the high decorativeness of leaves of bright red and yellow shades, the fruits are not consumed. If there is a need to strengthen slopes or ravines, it is Thunberg's barberry that is planted. Propagation by cuttings is possible, but, as a rule, planting by seeds or seedlings is practiced.
- Ottawa barberry. In our latitudes, shrubs are rare. Height is about 2 meters, the main advantage is the leaves, which in the summer have a pink-purple color, transforming in the winter into a bright crimson color. Frost-resistant, growing rapidly. It has various varieties (Superba, Auricoma, Silver Miles, etc.)
Propagation of barberry cuttings
In spring, summer and autumn, the shrub can be propagated using cuttings. For this, annual, lignified branches with 4-5 internodes, 15-20 cm long are used. If you choose early spring for vegetative propagation , it is best to do this before the buds begin to swell. The first time you need to withstand cuttings in the refrigerator, and rooting only start when the soil warms up.
In the case of autumn cuttings, proceed to it as late as possible, but before the onset of frosty weather. The shoots are cut with a sharp knife and stored in the basement in a container of wet sand. Make sure that they do not become moldy. Further, the actions are the same - landing in the ground as soon as it warms up. First you can use a small greenhouse, if successful, transplant young plants to a permanent place.
Barberry: propagation by green cuttings
Such material takes root much easier. For cuttings, use annual growths when the bark on them becomes elastic, but has not yet lignified. For example, the Thunberg barberry reproduction by cuttings tolerates well and has a high survival rate.
Experts advise using the middle part with the shoot (diameter about 5 mm). The length of the handle should be from 7 to 10 cm, consider the number of internodes, there should be two or three. Make the upper cut straight and the lower cut at an angle of 45 degrees. It is also recommended to remove the lower pair of leaves from the cuttings, and cut off the upper ones by half or one third. According to this method, the propagation of barberry by cuttings occurs in the summer (at its beginning).
A substrate with a sand and peat content of 1: 3 is best suited. Plant the cuttings obliquely, leaving a single internode on the surface. For successful rooting, a temperature of 20-25 ° C and a high humidity of 85-90% are required. If you choose hard-rooted barberry, propagation by cuttings is best done using growth regulators (auxins, IMC, IAA, etc.), since this increases the percentage of survival. These include the following species: monetized, Canadian, solid, etc.
Reproduction by dividing the bush
Shrubs 3-5 years old are best suited for these purposes. It is especially good to use specimens with a loose crown and planted with a depth of 10 cm. They dig a shrub in the early spring, before the sap flow begins. Using a secateurs, barberry is divided into 2 or 3 parts (including the root system). Further, each daughter bush is planted in a permanent place. This method is applicable only to those plants in which the shoots branch below the soil level.
Propagation by layering
The method is extremely simple and very effective. In early spring, as soon as the soil dries, select an annual shoot on the shrub. Next to it, dig a small groove to a depth of about 15-20 cm. Then tilt the branch, carefully lay it there and fasten it with a metal or wooden stud, cover it with earth. Only the top of the branch should remain above the surface of the soil. By autumn, the shoot forms its root system, and it can be easily separated from the mother plant. Using this method, you can get any barberry. Propagation by cuttings does not always give a positive result, but here everything is simple and easy.
Growing barberry from seeds
For these purposes, you can use not only purchased material, but also your own manufacture. To do this, collect the ripened berries of barberry and peel them from the pulp with a sieve, rinse thoroughly and dry under natural conditions. Sowing is best done in the winter, it can be done in a box or directly into the soil, the embedment depth is 1 cm. If propagation is carried out in spring, then stratification is necessary for 2-4 months at a temperature of 2 to 5 ° C above zero. As soon as a pair of real leaves appears in the seedlings, they must be thinned out, leaving a distance of at least 3-5 cm. Barberry is planted in a permanent place at the age of two years.
If you want, as they say, to catch two birds with one stone, namely to get a berry crop and decorate your plot, then feel free to choose barberry. Propagation by cuttings, shrubs or seeds does not cause difficulties, and the shrub itself is unpretentious and very resistant to heat, frost and even high gas contamination of urban air.