Barberry: Selection, Cultivation And Use In Garden Decoration
Barberry: Selection, Cultivation And Use In Garden Decoration

Video: Barberry: Selection, Cultivation And Use In Garden Decoration

Video: Barberry: Selection, Cultivation And Use In Garden Decoration
Video: All About Japanese Barberries 2024, May
Anonim
Common barberry
Common barberry

Barberries are very numerous and varied. Among them there are deciduous and evergreen species, species with black, red, bluish-blue fruits, species with single or collected flowers in multi-flowered brushes. The leaves of barberries are also of different shapes: ovoid, lanceolate and elliptical.

Each plant of these species can beautify your garden. All barberries tolerate a haircut well, so they can be used for curbs and hedges of different heights. Barberry is especially indispensable for these purposes in the northern regions, where the choice of plants for creating architectural forms is small.

Its single bushes are beautiful, sometimes with arched drooping branches, as well as group plantings of 3-4 bushes on the lawn or against the background of large trees. Barberries are used in gardening paths to fix the soil of the slopes.

Caring for barberries is simple. They are unpretentious to soils, winter-hardy, drought-resistant, photophilous. Among them are evergreen species. In addition, all types of barberry are good honey plants.

In private gardens in our country, two types are most often found.

Common barberry

Barberry
Barberry

(Berberis vulgaris L.). The most widespread and unpretentious shrub of all barberries. It is up to 2.5 m tall with shoots, first yellowish and yellowish-purple, and later brownish-gray. Cylindrical racemose inflorescences up to 5 cm long. The berries of this barberry are oblong-elliptical, purple, up to 1.2 cm long, remaining on the bushes until autumn. Ripen in September. They have a pleasant tart-sour taste. Barberry fruits can be ground into powder, which, due to its pronounced sour taste, can be used to prepare seasonings. They contain a lot of ascorbic acid. They are also used to make drinks, jams, marshmallows, liqueur.

This barberry propagates both by seeds, stratified for two months, and by summer cuttings.

Barberry Thunberg(Berberis thunbergii). One of the most beautiful low-growing species of barberry, reaching a height of up to 1 m. This is the most famous species after the common barberry. An extremely decorative and frost-resistant shrub with many forms, varieties and hybrids - there are red-leaved, silvery-bordered, multi-flowered plants. This is a plant with simple, up to 1 cm long spines, with graceful, arcuate deviating, ribbed shoots and rather small, spatulate or almost rounded entire leaves. In summer they are bright green, and in autumn they are yellow, bright orange, crimson, sometimes almost purple. At this time, this barberry is especially decorative. It blooms in May - June. In autumn, its bright red, sour-tasting fruits also adorn the shrub. Thunberg barberry propagates by summer cuttings and seeds stratified for three months,which sprout in two months.

It is necessary to start feeding barberries from the second year. Before winter, it is advisable to mulch the bushes with a layer of up to 10 cm for painless overwintering. The first 2-3 years it is good to cover the bushes with spruce branches. Since the barberry blooms on last year's growths, it is not necessary to carry out a shaping haircut on the plant in the spring.

Tamara Barkhatova

Photo by Olga Rubtsova

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