Barberryis a shrub with decorative leaves, not very demanding, suitable for a wide variety of applications. Thunberg'sbarberryand its numerous varieties are most often planted in gardens. It is a shrub that sheds its leaves for the winter, but among barberry you can also findevergreen barberryHere are the most interesting species and varieties of barberry. Choose barberry for your garden and see how easy it is to grow barberry.
Thunberg's barberry 'Atropurpurea'
Barberry - cultivation and use
There are over 450 species of barberry and numerous garden varietiesvarieties of barberryThey can vary greatly in size - from dwarf shrubs, not exceeding 0.5 m in height, to large shrubs growing up to 3 m They are used to create hedges, bedding compositions, rockeries, as a background for other plants, and some of them look great as solitaire.
Leaves of barberry are generally small, 1-4 cm long, green or multi-colored, usually very decorative. In varieties that drop their leaves for the winter, they turn beautifully in the fall. The shoots are strong, covered with thorns. In spring, barberry is additionally decorated with small flowers, yellow in various shades, single or gathered in clusters, hanging on the stalks on the lower side of the shoots. These shrubs also produce fruits in the form of oblong (less often round) berries, red, navy blue or black, with a waxy coating, which usually remain on the plants until winter.
About wide possibilitiesuse of barberry, apart from their decorative qualities, were decided by low requirements as to the conditionsgrowing barberry They prefer sunny positions and light soils, coping well with barren soils, they withstand drought, air pollution and are not disturbed by the competition of the roots of large trees. Seasonal species are also fully frost-resistant, while those evergreen can be grown only in warmer regions of the country.
There is only one species in the wild in Poland -common barberry(Berberis vulgaris). It is a shrub that grows up to 3 m tall, with angular, thorny stems and delicately serrated leaves. It blooms from May to June. It used to be very popular, but when it was discovered that it was an intermediate host of stem rust, a serious cereal disease, its population was significantly reduced and production for gardens was abandoned.
Thunberg's barberry 'Coronita'
Thunberg's barberry and its varieties
Currently, the most reliableThunberg barberry(Berberis thunbergii), available in many attractive garden varieties, leads the way in horticulture.It is a dense, spherical shrub with fine, spatulate leaves, fully frost-resistant, tolerates pruning well, and is rarely attacked by diseases or pests. It is perfect for hedges that are not only dense and effective, but also very difficult to break through because of the thorns. Thunberg's barberry hedge is also encouraged by the availability of relatively cheap open-root cuttings, which can be planted in late fall or early spring.
Noteworthygarden varieties of barberryof this species is Thunberg's barberry 'Atropurpurea' with a beautiful, purple color of leaves, domed shape and growth to 2 m in height and 'Atropurpurea Nana' with an additional limited growth to 0, 6 m high. These two varieties are best known as red barberry, but Thunberg's barberry has many more interesting red-leaved varieties. Also of note are the varieties with yellow leaves, such as 'Aurea' (up to 1.2 m high) and the miniature 'Bogozam' (up to 0.4 m high). Choosingyellow-leaved barberry varietiesremember to plant them in semi-shaded places, as full sun can cause burns on their bright leaves.
Thunberg's barberry 'Kórnik'
There are alsovarieties of Thunberg's barberrywith multi-colored leaves, such as 'Golden Ring' with red leaves with a thin yellow border, or 'Kelleris' and 'Kórnik' with leaves white variegated. Very attractive leaves - red, speckled with white, pink and gray spots, has the 'Harlequin' variety. The low cultivar 'Green Carpet', growing up to 0.8 m in height and more than twice as wide, with horizontally arranged shoots, is an excellent ground cover plant. The 'Kobold' variety, on the other hand, forms small, up to 0.5 m high, dense spheres. Column-shaped cultivars such as the green-leaved 'Erecta' and the purple 'Red Pillar' are also appreciated, which are perfect hedge plants.
All the above-mentionedvarieties of Thunberg's barberryare plants with seasonal leaves, fully frost-resistant.
Julianna's evergreen barberry
Evergreen barberry - species and varieties
In our climate, but only in warmer parts of the country, you can also cultivate evergreen barberry, bearing in mind, however, that eachevergreen barberryrequires a warm, sheltered, rather partially shaded position. From this group, a particularly interesting one comes from China,Julianna's barberry(Berberis julianae) with narrow, leathery leaves, initially copper, later dark green, and also from ChileBoxwood barberry(Berberis buxifolia), spherical in shape, but quite difficult to get. The boxwood barberry also has a dwarf variety 'Nana', reaching only 0.5 m in height.
A compromise may be the cultivation of slightly more frost-resistant varieties of semi-evergreen hybrid, which isintermediate barberry(Berberis x media). The variety 'Parkjuweel' has dark green, glossy leaves, while the variety 'Red Jewell' has purple-red leaves.Both grow up to 1.5 m tall.
Barberry 'Prof. Sękowski '- Polish variety
When writing about barberry, it is impossible not to mention the Polish episode related to the discovery of a new variety. In Poznań, at the end of the 90s, prof. Bolesław Sękowski found an interesting variety with seasonal leaves, reddish in spring and dark green in summer with a clear cream border. After the Professor's death, his daughter Jadwiga Sękowska, MA, conducted further observations and research, the final result of which was the application in 2004 of the varietybarberry 'Profesor Sękowski'for the protection of the exclusive right. Since then, the legal owner of this variety is the Agricultural University of Poznań.
