Barberry, unpretentious in care and undemanding to growing conditions, is widely used in landscape design. However, not all gardeners know that the aesthetic appeal of a shrub depends on adherence to the technology of preparing the plant for wintering. Today we will tell you whether you need to cover the barberry for the winter.
- 1 Rules for preparing for winter
- 2 Video: "Preparing barberry for winter"
- 3 What plants need to be covered
- 4 Warming options
Care features
In autumn, drought-resistant bushes need to be watered with 10 liters of water only in the absence of frequent rains. If there is a young shrub 2-3 years old on the site, its protection from the cold will consist in mulching the trunk circle with peat, spruce branches, or a layer of dry foliage. The biennial plant is fed with nitrogen fertilizers, urea. The next time the preparations are applied at the age of 5–6 years, before flowering, “Kemiru Universal” is used. Poultry manure and cow dung are suitable natural fertilizers. For the first time, autumn pruning is carried out at the age of 1-2 years, the branches are shortened by a third or half of the length.
Schemes and technology
It is quite easy to prune the shrub correctly. Its branches grow almost vertically, rarely get tangled. But it can be difficult to give a thickened barberry the required shape.
Features of pruning a young bush
The first pruning of a young bush is carried out in the first spring after planting. One strongest shoot is selected and shortened to the first bud. All weak branches are cut. Over the summer, the shrub will give abundant growth. In this form, he will leave for the winter. The gardener only needs to remove damaged or diseased branches.
The next spring, the shrub is “planted on a stump”. All branches are cut low, leaving high hemp. During the growing season, awakened buds will give abundant growth. The rule for pruning young barberry: the operation is carried out only in the spring, in the fall the bush is left alone.
Anti-aging pruning
Old bushes (12 years or more) require rejuvenating pruning. It is recommended to act like this:
- cut out all old dark-colored shoots without leaving hemp;
- remove weak young ones too;
- cut part of the young, leaving hemp;
- the remaining part of young shoots should be shortened by 1/3.
You should not be afraid of too radical removal of shoots: the barberry will quickly respond to it and grow new branches. In this way, the life and fruiting of the shrub in the garden can be extended.
Wellness
Wellness pruning is carried out at any time of the year. During it, all broken and dried branches are removed. It is absolutely recommended to carry out the operation after strong winds, heavy snowfalls, freezing rains.
Formative
It is simple to form a barberry: all its branches grow almost vertically. The gardener is only required to remove old and tangled shoots in time. It is required to take into account that some barberries give abundant root growth. It also needs to be cut out at the very ground. Barberry easily recovers after pruning of any intensity, so it can be shaped into any shape using a topiary frame.
Features of pruning various types of barberry
If the barberry is left alone, then it will form in the form of a disheveled ball.This feature is taken into account by landscape designers: most often they cut barberry in the form of a ball, cone or pyramid.
Video "How to properly cover plants for the winter"
In this video, a specialist will tell you how to properly cover plants for the winter.
The feasibility of sheltering a crop for the winter depends on its varietal characteristics. Thunberg shrubs, Ottawa, ordinary, as well as species native to Canada, feel best in the climate of the middle zone. If a lot of snow falls during the winter, such plants can easily do without additional protection.
Hybrids, in particular columnar varieties, do not tolerate low temperatures. It is important not only to purchase suitable materials, but also to know how to insulate shrubs, depending on the growing region.
Material selection
When preparing plants for wintering, it is important to remove from the ground the inert peat in which the seedlings were grown, and fill the ground from the planting pit, and in the autumn to huddle the root collar to a height of 12 cm. bunch. They use materials such as burlap or spunbond, which can be purchased at the store. They are used to wrap branches, securing them for reliability with a thick rope, but not overtightening so as not to damage.
Features of care in different climatic zones
Many shrub varieties are endowed with high frost resistance and are able to withstand even temperatures as low as -40 ° C. If you do not take into account the peculiarities of creating winter protection in different regions, the shrub freezes or grows out.
When growing crops in regions with harsh winters, namely in the Urals and Siberia, it is important to reliably protect the plantings by collecting the shoots with your hands and tying them with a rope. Above the bush, a cylinder of metal mesh is made, which is 10–15 cm larger in size - both in width and height. The container that remains up to the top should be filled with dry leaves from the site. Having made a cylinder over the bush, it should be wrapped in dense material, secured with wiring or rope, so that the wind or snow that has fallen cannot ruin the structure.
Gardeners of the Volga region and the middle lane should prepare the shrub for wintering, then spud the root collar, using dry soil for this purpose. Shoots should also be collected by hand; for wrapping them, a dense material is used, which is fixed with a rope wrapped several times around the bush. After snow falls, regardless of the growing region, it should be scooped up to the base of the bushes. The snow cap is an excellent protection, since the dormant buds at the base will not freeze even in severe winters, and young shoots will appear from them in the spring.
If everything is done correctly, the material can be removed with the onset of spring, when severe frosts will not return. When creating protection, make sure that there is a hole in the ground through which the lower part of the branches can be saturated with vital oxygen.
When planting, remember that the crop thrives best in areas that are well lit by the sun, protected from wind and drafts in air and permeable soil.
Planting a barberry seedling
Barberry Thunberg - planting can be carried out throughout the spring-summer season. Planting time depends on the type of seedling purchased. The specimens in the shipping container can be planted both in spring and summer without disturbing the earthen coma. Plants in packages (with open roots) are rooted in early spring, before the beginning of the growing season. It is not recommended to plant the Thunberg barberry in the fall, as this species slowly adapts and can die with the onset of cold weather.
The planting pit should be medium in size, approximately 40x40x40 cm.Sprawling bushes are planted at a distance of about one and a half meters from each other. If the barberry will be used as a hedge, then it is wiser to dig a trench and place seedlings in it at the rate of 2 copies per 1 running meter.
Read also: Carrots useful properties for children
Planting Thunberg barberry will not give a gardener a lot of trouble. A drainage layer is poured into the prepared hole, the dug out soil, if necessary, is mixed with a nutrient substrate and fertilizers and partially filled into the hole. Next, place a seedling, sprinkle it with the remnants of the earth, compact the soil and water it with water.
Features of caring for barberry in the fall and preparation for winter - general tips and tricks
Even the most beautiful plant will look sickly without proper care. Despite its original appearance, barberry does not require special conditions. Caring for a beautiful plant does not take a lot of free time, which is very valuable in a troublesome time, when every minute counts due to the need to pay attention to all the plants in the garden. What does an unpretentious barberry need in the fall in preparation for winter?
Watering. The ornamental shrub is endowed with excellent drought resistance, so the plant needs to be watered only in case of dry autumn. In order to saturate the barberry with moisture, 10 liters are poured under the bush. water. After watering, the soil is loosened.
Important! Too frequent and abundant watering is dangerous for the shrub by the appearance of rot on the roots, which quickly destroys the plant.
Top dressing. Barberry is very unpretentious to the composition of the soil: feeding during planting is enough for a seedling to exist normally for a whole year. Fertilizers begin to be applied in the second autumn after planting, and next time the bush is pampered with a nutrient mixture only after 3-4 years.
According to this scheme, gardeners apply fertilizers under single barberry bushes. As for the cultivation of hedges, it is recommended to fertilize such plantings annually once every 2 years, since a group of plants planted nearby quickly sucks nutrients from the soil.
In September, before digging, superphosphate (15 g) and potassium (10 g) are scattered near the plants. Approximately the same amount of fertilizers will be used for feeding per 1 sq. M. plantings. This mixture can be replaced with compost or humus. 1-2 buckets of the mixture are brought under a young bush, 3-4 buckets under an adult.
Note! It is not recommended to use multicomponent mineral mixtures for the autumn feeding of barberry.
Pruning. The cultivation of a shrub requires a lot of patience and skill from the gardener, since the shoots of the shrub are covered with sharp thorns. Therefore, in order to avoid numerous scratches, pruning should be carried out with heavy gardening gloves.
Mulching. Only young bushes 2-3 years old need additional warming of the rhizomes. To protect the seedlings from frost, the trunk circle is covered with a layer of dry leaves, peat or spruce branches.
Shelter. They begin to insulate the barberry after the average daily temperature reaches -5-7 C, and the soil freezes to a depth of 5 cm. The purpose of the shelter is not only to protect the shoots of ornamental shrubs from frost, but also from getting wet.
Video: preparing barberry for winter - autumn pruning and fertilizing
Decorative properties of barberry Thunberg
There are many varieties of barberry, they all differ in a different structure of the shrub, the intensity of the color of the foliage and the shape of the inflorescences. Tall shrubs will look good in single plantings and as a hedge. Dwarf specimens not exceeding 35 cm in height can be placed on a rocky hill or decorated with a border.
Magnificent Thunberg barberry - growing and care is practically no different from other species.This is a compact bush no more than one and a half meters high, ideal for decorating hedges and zoning the site. Leaves are yellow-red, bears fruit abundantly, but berries are not eaten. Barberry looks most impressive in the fall, when the foliage is colored with scarlet, ruby or dark crimson tones. The following varieties are especially popular:
Pruning in the fall
Shoots covered with thorns are very difficult to cut even with gloves. In order to protect your hands as much as possible from minor injuries, it is better to trim with a tool with long handles.
Why crop
Pruning is an integral part of the cultivation of all shrubs, without exception, including barberry.
There are a number of important reasons for pruning barberry in autumn:
- Removing unnecessary branches increases productivity: on neglected shrubs, due to a lack of sunlight, few fruits are tied or they are completely absent.
- Pruning allows you to give the bush the most intricate shapes.
- As a result of thinning, the crown of the barberry becomes well ventilated. As a rule, a well-groomed plant is less likely to get sick and is attacked by pests.
Agree, in view of the functions that cropping carries in itself, it is not worth neglecting manipulation at all.
When is the best time to prune - in spring or autumn
The timing of pruning barberry is not of key importance: the manipulation will be equally effective both in spring and in autumn.
Pruning dates in the fall
The main condition for the start of pruning is the end of fruiting. You can trim the plant before frost. Based on the characteristics of the cultivated variety, the autumn pruning of barberry is carried out in September-October.
How to cut correctly - instructions and diagram
Depending on the state of the barberry, before winter, sanitary, formative and rejuvenating pruning is carried out.
The purpose of sanitary pruning is to remove dried, damaged and diseased and pest-affected branches from the bush. To prevent thickening of the crown, such a manipulation is recommended annually.
Depending on whether the bush is grown in a single copy or in group plantings, the crown is formed to obtain the desired shape. Despite the external "belligerence", any geometric figure can be cut out of the bush - be it a ball, a column or a pyramid.
To maintain shape in the following seasons, after pruning, the shoots protruding from the crown are shortened to one level. To protect the plant from shock and loss of strength as a result of such a large-scale intervention, the formative pruning is stretched for 2-3 years.
Gardeners reviews
In EDSR, I met a recommendation to prune barberry in June after flowering. Not knowing this, I pruned in the spring, the result was already visible in the current season. I would cut a long branch about 30 cm, I would not touch the small ones. Would feed Kemiroi-universal "Vesna", if she is not there - with another mineral water with a predominance of nitrogen. At the end of summer, when the branches grow, I would prune again to bring their size closer to something average. It seems to me that it will level out, the plant is unpretentious and grateful.
OlgaZ, Moscow
I cut my barberries in the way that is convenient for me in life. I read and read all kinds of literature about them, tried to apply some rules, but they somehow behave not according to the rules. At the beginning of spring, it seems that all the branches begin to release foliage, and then many wither, so in the spring I do not cut it off right away, but I observe who will behave. such branches are not residents anyway). I do sanitary pruning throughout the summer, and when the bush comes into force in the summer, I cut decoratively, as I wish. The nice thing about barberry is that it grows and recovers quickly. This is my experience.
levmarina, Moscow
About the barberry hedge.Nana is quite short, he is up to 60 cm, in principle, if you cut it, then what will remain Many photos of hedges in Yandex from tunberg atropurpurea, beautiful - I have single bushes of both varieties, they grow well, pests and diseases have never been, but I have the first about 1.8 m already, planted with an adult bush. If you cut small seedlings, I think it will work out great, but! it is terribly prickly, just creepy, before planting, remove all the weeds, then mulch, I suffered so much with weeding once, I scratched my hands.
Rikki-tikki
Pruning barberry requires some skill. Nevertheless, the labor expended will pay off when multi-colored bushes of an unusual shape appear on your site.
Gardeners know little about pruning barberry, although it is grown in almost all areas. This shrub is an excellent honey plant. Its flowers attract bees, which pollinate other flowering plants along the way. The shrub is unpretentious. It adapts well to soils, is insensitive to strong winds and grows quickly. In order for the plant to please the gardener and not cause inconvenience, timely pruning is required.
Why do you need insulation
The technique of sheltering ornamental crops for the winter is based on the varietal qualities of the cultivated plants. So, most varieties of barberry of domestic and Canadian selection - Thunberg, Ottavsky, Obyknovy, etc. - are characterized by excellent endurance and high frost resistance. For the northern region, the varieties Rose Glow, Harlequin, Admiration, Red Rocket, Orange Rocket, Bagatelle, Atropurpurea and Maria are suitable.
The varieties Golden Rocket, Aurea, Juliana, Green Carpen and Red Pillar are considered less winter-hardy and require warming for the winter. Keep in mind that young shrubs and ornamental crops weakened after transplantation or disease require a dense covering layer for the winter.
Choice of materials
After the preparation of the barberry for winter is completed, you can begin to warm the decorative culture. First of all, you should take care of the root collar and the bases of the skeletal branches - we are talking about the procedure for mulching the trunk circle. You need to mulch plants in the garden with the following materials:
- peat;
- a mixture of dry earth and coarse river sand;
- tree bark;
- sawdust;
- hay;
- straw;
- small spruce branches;
- thick cardboard chopped into pieces;
- scraps of nonwoven fabric.
You can cover the aboveground part of the barberry in various ways. Some gardeners prefer to use a variety of materials at hand. These can be old white polypropylene bags, pine spruce branches, metal mesh and singed leaves, burlap or plastic wrap. However, if a dense plastic film was chosen as a covering material, you need to take care of openings or openings for air exchange. Otherwise, the shrub will begin to "suffocate", mold and traces of fungus will appear on the root collar and branches.
As for modern covering materials, geotextile and jute fabrics, spunbond, lutrasil, as well as "Obernit" and "Fortune 60" are very popular among gardeners.
What problems can you face
Barberry tolerates well even anti-aging pruning. It recovers quickly and continues to bear fruit. But novice gardeners face difficulties:
- when pruning, burrs remain, leading to rotting of the core of the shoots;
- hemp is formed, giving rise to hollows after a few years;
- too abrupt rejuvenating operation slows down the growth of barberry.
When pruning a plant for the first time, you should not rush: it is better to divide the procedure into 2-3 stages.
No related posts
Insulation technique
Adult and frost-resistant barberry shrubs do not shelter for the winter in the southern regions and in the regions of central Russia with abundant snow cover. To protect plants from cold and changes in air temperature, you need to insulate the root collar and the base of the bush with a mulch layer.
In the north and east of the country, where there are severe and long winters, ornamental shrubs need careful insulation. First, gardeners mulch barberry, while the layer of mulch should be 20–25 cm high. Then the branches of the shrub are collected in a bunch and fixed with twine. The branches collected in a bunch can be bent to the ground or left in an upright position. The above-ground part of the bush is covered with spruce branches or dry foliage, and a "non-fabric" is thrown from above.
Pegs, wooden slats, beams, bricks and any stones are used to fix the non-woven fabric.
Lack of experience and non-compliance with the technique of sheltering barberry for the winter can lead to the death of the bush. Autumn care, preparation and insulation should be carried out in accordance with the varietal characteristics of the crop and the characteristics of the climatic zone.
Pest control
Aphids are among the most common outdoor pests. Barberry is also susceptible to its harmful effects. If the flowers have lost their attractiveness, and the leaves of the plant are curled up and covered with sticky dew, you need to take action immediately. The most common option for destroying pest colonies is processing with laundry soap. For a bucket of water, 250-300 grams of detergent will be enough.
photo: <2013.igem.org
Seeing the berries of a barberry as if eaten away, you should not sin on the birds. This is how the flower moth reveals itself. Sawer caterpillars that have settled on the bush also harm the fruits a lot. The top folk remedies for pest control of barberry also include infusions of bitter pepper, yarrow, St. John's wort, and garlic. Modern insecticides, the widest range of which are presented in specialized stores, has not been canceled either.
