How to plant barberry in autumn and protect it from possible diseases?

In addition, barberry is very unpretentious, which allows even a novice gardener to boldly plant it on his site, without fear that he will get sick or die.

Barberry is considered an energetically strong plant that perfectly affects the entire surrounding flora. He practically does not get sick and is not affected by pests.

In this article, we will tell you how to grow barberry on your site and help you choose the best species and varieties for this.

Botanical description

Barberry The plant is a shrub and belongs to the genus Barberry (Berberis) of the family of the same name. A little more than 170 species of this plant are known, which in the wild are widespread in Asia and Europe (not higher than the temperate zone), in North America. Several varieties of barberry are cultivated in the gardens.
Common barberry is popular among gardeners of our climatic zone. It is a branchy and spreading bush, reaching 2.5-3 m in height. Thin flexible branches are covered with brown bark and are provided with thorns, up to 2.5 cm long. The roots are creeping, mostly superficial.

Good leafy shrub. The leaves are elongated, oval, 3.5-4 cm long. On the edge of the leaf plate, serrate-serrate. On twigs they sit in bunches of 3-5 pieces. They are painted light green.

Flowers of common barberry are collected in 20-22 pieces per brush. The flowers are bright yellow, up to 8 mm in size. The length of the flower cluster reaches 6-7 cm. Barberry blooms in May.

Flowering period and care after

This shrub begins to bloom in May-July, it all depends on the variety, temperature conditions. The period lasts about 3 weeks. At this time, a wonderful smell emanates from the bush.

When the common barberry blooms, it attracts a large number of pollinating insects. Bees fly in, collecting nectar, pollen from flowers and leaves. In bloom - barberry is the best honey plant for bees.

During the flowering and fruiting seasons, pruning is carried out 2 times. Old branches are removed, taking away nutrients from the bush. They also cut off those that have begun to dry out or do not bloom at all and do not bear healthy fruits.

The benefits of barberry and application

The composition of the fruits, foliage and bark of the plant contains alkoloid compounds, organic acids, saccharides, essential oils, vitamins. The following substances are recognized as particularly useful and valuable:

• berberine (the substance is endowed with a choleretic effect);
• oxyacanthin;
• leontin;
• acids - tartaric, malic, citric;
• vitamin C (its amount in barberry berries is higher than in lemon fruits);
• retinol;
• pectin;
• glucose and fructose.

In folk and official medicine:

1. to increase and strengthen immunity (useful during colds and viral infections);
2. as a choleretic and diuretic (for diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract);
3. as a sedative for nervous disorders;
4. anti-inflammatory;
5. lowering blood pressure;
6. the drink speeds up metabolism, as well as cleanses blood vessels from cholesterol deposits.

Official medicine uses this plant in the homeopathic preparation Berberis, which is included in therapy for diseases of the genitourinary system.

Attention! Unripe fruits of barberry contain alkaloids in high concentration, so they are not eaten. During pregnancy, chronic liver diseases, a tendency to allergies - barberry is used with caution, only after consultation with a specialist.

In cooking

Fresh and dried berries of the plant have long been used in cooking. Barberry is used to season meat dishes (the famous Uzbek pilaf is unthinkable without these berries), soups from lentils and other legumes. They are used to make jam, marshmallow and marmalade, used to flavor sweets and alcoholic beverages. The edible fruit can even be pickled.

When to plant barberry correctly

Barberry tolerates transplantation well. If you bought a seedling with a closed root system, then you can plant it at any warm season. It is advisable to plant seedlings with an open root system in autumn or spring.

In the regions of our country (south, middle lane, Moscow region), it is best to plant barberry in the fall. This time is favorable, as the summer heat subsides and there is enough rainfall.

Planting barberry bushes in open ground is carried out 40-50 days before the onset of stable frosts. In the middle lane and the Moscow region, the optimal dates come in September; in the south of our country, barberry can be transplanted in October.

Important! Planting in the northern regions and Siberia is carried out in the spring, so that the young plant has time to take root during the summer and get stronger before the arrival of winter.

When to harvest

Barberry is also known for its taste and medicinal properties. Moreover, all its parts are useful: fruits, leaves, bark and roots.

The berries ripen in the fall, so they are harvested during this period. They are especially tasty after the first frost. But you should not overexpose them in the cold. The leaves are harvested during flowering, which occurs in late spring and early summer.

The roots are harvested in April and also in October or November. It is better to wait for the moment when the bush is already at rest.

The bark is removed in the phase of sap flow.

Site requirements

Unpretentious shrubs are not afraid of severe frosts and gusts of wind. It grows almost anywhere. But nevertheless, it is recommended to approach with responsibility when choosing a place for growing barberry:

• The plant develops well in light partial shade or in the sun. Varieties with bright red foliage, preferably in a well-lit area. Barberry with green leaves grows in partial shade.
• The root system is sensitive to moisture stagnation. Plots with a tendency to flooding are categorically unsuitable for barberry. The plant may die when grown in a swamp or lowland.
• Barberry loves neutral, ordinary fertile soil. If there is acidic soil on the site, liming is carried out. The recommended composition of the substrate for the shrub: humus or compost, garden soil and 100 g of superphosphate.

What problems do novice gardeners face

Barberry is an unpretentious plant, and novice gardeners have nothing to fear: they can easily cope with caring for it. But it is recommended to provide for the possibility of making some mistakes:

1. Planting in a lowland or on a territory flooded in spring. Barberry does not tolerate wet roots.
2. Accommodation on acidic soils. The shrub stops growing.
3. Excess nitrogen in the soil. This mistake leads to fungal infections.
4. Planting too often. Plants are inconvenient to care for.
5. Frequent and abundant watering. The roots rot, the plant dies.
6. Neglecting regular pruning. In fruit barberries, it leads to a decrease in yield, in ornamental barberries - to a loss of foliage color.
7. Shade accommodation. The plant will be oppressed: it loves sunlight.
8. Planting too close to other crops.Barberry is actively growing, and its shoots will interfere with caring for neighbors.
9. An attempt to transplant an adult bush. Most likely, he will die. It is recommended to use cuttings or cuttings for planting in a new location.
10. Planting a seedling with an open root system at the wrong time.

For the successful cultivation of a shrub, you should carefully study all the rules and follow them.

Varieties

Despite the variety of species and varieties of barberry, each specimen is individual and beautiful. When choosing a plant variety, you should be guided by your preferences. To obtain edible fruits, one type of shrub is chosen, while others are used to decorate the garden.

Common barberry is a tall species of barberry (up to 3 meters). The fruits are large (1.5 cm), edible, numerous. The common barberry has many varieties:

• Albo-Variegata - the bush has decorative foliage with white specks or stripes,
• Aureo-Marginata - a bush 1.5 m high, leaves with a golden or silver border,
• Atropurpurea is a shrub with red or purple leaves that does not shed foliage for a long time.
• Asperm is a bush with dark red, seedless fruits that are easy to process.

Barberry Thunberg is a deciduous shrub with a height of 50 cm to 1 m. It is considered one of the most beautiful ornamental species. A feature of this species are branches that extend horizontally. Young shoots are creamy or red in color, and with age they acquire a brown or reddish-brown hue. The forms of this species are quite diverse, differ in the number of flowers, color of foliage, shoots, and other parameters. Gardeners prefer varieties: Golden Ring; Red Pilar; Orange; Kornik.

Photo:

Ottawa barberry is a hybrid that appeared in the process of crossing the common barberry and the Thunberg barberry. He has absorbed the most striking properties from these representatives of the genus. This species is frost-hardy, grows quickly enough.

About an ornamental plant

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The shrub, known as Berberis thunbergii, is a short (80 - 90 cm) plant, although some of its decorative species can reach a height of 1.5 m.

It has thin reddish shoots that branch well at the top and give it the shape of a ball.

On the shoots there are rare single spines 1 cm long. Barberry blooms in late spring for 2 - 3 weeks.

Its small bell-shaped flowers are bright yellow in color. But the plant is famous not for them, but for its leaves.

In barberry Thunberg, the description of the leaves is as follows: the length is 1 - 3 cm, the shape is spatulate or rhomboid, the surface is smooth, shiny.

The beauty and decorativeness of the leaves is given by their color. By autumn, the green and red leaf blades, depending on the variety of the plant, turn purple, yellow, often variegated and iridescent. They retain bright saturated shades until the very fall and look great on shrubs.

By autumn, berries ripen on the branches of the barberry, which can hang almost all winter. They are elliptical and coral red in color.

The fruits are not suitable for food, as they are bitter. In combination with the leaves, the berries give the plant an elegant look.

Such a shrub is a real decoration of the garden and is most often planted as a hedge, especially since its crown can be easily formed by pruning.

But the Thunberg barberry is good as a single bush, as well as in combination with evergreen conifers: thuja and juniper.

Planting barberry in the fall - instructions

Before immersion in the soil, it is useful to soak the seedlings for an hour or two in a solution of Kornevin or Heteroauxin, diluting the drug according to the instructions.

1. In the prepared area, planting holes are dug, 30 by 30 cm in size and up to 50 cm deep. Drainage is poured at the bottom in the form of broken brick, crushed stone or pebbles. Drainage layer 4-5 cm.
2. To cover the seedling, a nutrient mixture is prepared: the sod land is mixed with sand and humus in equal proportions. 120 g of superphosphate and 80 g of potassium sulfate are added to a bucket of this mixture.
3. The pit is filled by a third with prepared soil. The seedling is placed in the center of the pit, the roots are carefully straightened. If it was in a pot, it is not necessary to destroy the root ball.
4. Holding the barberry bush, its roots are evenly covered with earth, compacting it with your palms. The root collar of the seedling remains on the surface of the ground.
5. Watered abundantly with water and mulched with humus, tree bark, sawdust.

After planting, the crown of the barberry is shortened to 5-6 buds. This measure will help the plant to root better.

How to preserve seedlings before planting

Seedlings appear on the shelves of supermarkets or horticultural centers in January-February. Planting a plant during this period is not possible for most regions. The exception is Crimea, where shoots begin to bloom at this time. However, even buying a shrub at such an inappropriate time for planting can keep the seedlings alive and well.

1. After purchase, part of the wrapping paper covering the branches is removed from the seedling.
2. The roots of the plant are left in the package.
3. The storage temperature of the seedling should not exceed 3 o C. This is the temperature regime at which the plant is in hibernation. You can store seedlings on an unheated balcony. Also, the plant can be placed on the lower shelf in the refrigerator, designed for storing fruits and vegetables.
4. In the event that the purchased seedling has leaves, it must be planted in a container and grown as a houseplant. The air temperature in the room should not exceed 22-25 o C.

Goji planting

The site for planting goji must be chosen sunny and without the danger of stagnant water, that is, somewhere on a small hill or hill. Any soil is suitable for the plant, but alkaline and stony soil will be preferable.

It is necessary to leave a distance of at least one and a half meters between the seedlings. The depth of each hole is 20 centimeters. Before planting a seedling, a small amount of ash-humus mixture must be poured into each hole.

When planting large goji seedlings purchased in the nursery, the holes should be twice as deep (at least 40 centimeters) and a larger amount of the nutrient mixture is poured. For each plant, you will need one bucket of peat and compost, as well as wood ash (about one liter jar). If you wish, you can add superphosphate (200 grams) to the soil.

How to grow goji Tibetan barberry in the country

When is it better to plant grape cuttings in winter
Only the lazy does not know about goji now. Sweet and sour red berries rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are loved by many, especially people striving for a healthy lifestyle.

One problem is that the price of goji berries is obscenely high. Still, they are adored by Hollywood stars, presented as a panacea for a whole bunch of diseases and are grown in faraway China.

Why not try to grow goji berries in the country? Common barberry grows well and winters in our area, so why not grow Tibetan too? Let's find out how to independently grow goji from seeds and achieve good yields of this wonderful berry ...

In fact, the Tibetan barberry bush can grow and bear fruit even in the northern regions, and even more so in the middle lane. In nature, goji is found mainly in mountainous areas, it is completely unpretentious and very hardy. Drought or rainy weather, frost or heat - this plant does not care about anything.Therefore, goji berry practically does not require special conditions and special agricultural technology. She has few pests and diseases.

The only, but let's be honest, a little difficulty in growing goji is getting seedlings and planting them correctly. Of course, you can search nurseries and buy a ready-made young plant, but it is much safer to grow seedlings yourself from seeds.

Ideally, for planting, you need to take seeds from fresh berries, which is not feasible in our realities. It's not scary, seeds from dried berries also sprout well, especially if they are kept for an hour in one of the growth stimulants: epine, zircon, or any of the folk remedies before planting.

The soil for planting seeds is prepared from two parts of land and one part of peat. You can add a small amount of ash to the potting mix.

First, the seeds are sown in one box, in shallow grooves and covered with a layer of peat half a centimeter. It is recommended to cover the box with foil and put it in a warm, dark place until the first shoots appear. Then the container with the seedlings is placed on a light windowsill. Soil moisture is maintained using a sprayer with a sprayer, since the goji seedlings are very flimsy at the beginning of the journey.

After the appearance of the fourth true leaf, the plants dive into individual containers. It is better to take deep cups of 500 milliliters, because the root system of goji develops in most of the depth

Therefore, when transplanting, it is important to pick up the seedling as deeply as possible and transplant it together with an earthen lump.

As soon as the threat of frost passes (in May-June), young goji plants can be planted in open ground.

As a permanent residence for a Tibetan barberry bush, it is better to choose a sunny area, a hillock - in general, a place where snow melts quickly in spring and water does not stagnate. Goji can grow on any soil, but prefers alkaline and stony soils, so when planting a seedling, ash must be added to the hole. Future bushes are located at a distance of 1.5-2 meters from each other.

For small seedlings grown from seeds, it is enough to make holes 20 centimeters deep, fill them halfway with a mixture of humus and ash, and then plant the plants.

For larger seedlings from the nursery, you will need pits with a diameter of half a meter and a depth of 40 centimeters. A bucket of compost, peat or humus and a liter can of ash are poured onto the bottom of such a pit. If you are not against mineral fertilizers, you can add 150-200 grams of superphosphate to the soil mixture.

After planting, goji seedlings must be well watered, mulched and set a support or trellis - the branches of young bushes often tend to the ground, so it is recommended to tie them up immediately.

Care

The plant will not cause much trouble to the gardener. When caring for barberry, it is important to remember that it does not like excess moisture. When grown in the middle lane, the shrub has enough natural rainfall. Only in the period of flowering and pouring berries, he needs weekly watering.

Mulching the soil will help reduce the need for watering and curb weed growth. Gradually decaying, it provides additional nutrition to the plant. Used as mulch: chopped straw, hay, wood shavings and bark, fallen leaves.

Some gardeners grow a garden under tinning - they sow lawn grasses under the trees, which they periodically cut. Such a garden looks neat, but the lawn requires watering, feeding and mowing. Used for sowing ready-made sets of cereal grasses, white clover.

The fertilizers applied during planting will be enough for the barberry for a whole year. From the next spring, nitrogen fertilizers are applied under each bush - 20 g of urea is dissolved in 10 liters of water. You can apply a solution of chicken manure at a concentration of 1 in 15.

In August, it is useful to feed the plants with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. You can use wood ash and bone meal, 100 g per 1 sq. m.

On a note.Barberry, grown as a hedge and undergoing regular shearing, needs increased feeding. It is fed with nitrogen fertilizers twice a season - in spring and in the middle of summer. At the end of summer, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are applied to the soil (15 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium sulfate under a bush).

Watering and loosening the soil

Barberry is a plant that is not difficult to care for and does not take much time. The culture does not allow waterlogging. Therefore, adult bushes are watered no more than once every 2 weeks.

Adonis flower - planting and care in the open field

With regular precipitation, additional irrigation is not carried out. Juveniles need proper constant watering until they fully take root.

Attention! When caring for this shrub, the volume of irrigation liquid is taken based on the fact that the water penetrates to a depth of 0.4 meters.

After watering, the soil is loosened, opening the way for oxygen to the root system. Remove weeds so that they do not absorb essential nutrients and do not carry infections and rot. Then the soil is mulched.

How to care for a tree on the site

In order to get a beautiful and regularly bearing plant, he needs to create conditions that are close to real ones. The beginning of fruiting depends on how correctly the barberry is planted.

The rules for growing a bush are simple: you need to feed the bush on time, water it and prune it.

Irrigation

Barberry does not tolerate excessive moisture. Watering it is required only in severe drought. In an ordinary summer, he provides himself with water. It is required to monitor the moisture content of the trunk circle in young plants that were planted last spring.

In order to preserve moisture in the soil, the trunk circle should be mulched with dried plant residues or crushed wood chips. To prevent the outflow of nitrogen from the soil, it is recommended to spill the chips with a urea solution.

Weeding and loosening the soil

Young barberries require regular weeding: plants are photophilous, and rapidly developing weeds oppress them. It is recommended to combine weeding with loosening. In this case, you should be especially careful not to damage the roots. Adult plants thrive on turfed tree trunks. With this type of cultivation, you should regularly mow the grass.

Fertilization and regularity of watering

In nature, the plant does well without fertilization. But cultivars need feeding. But it is important to remember: the plant does not tolerate excess nutrition. When planting, the planting pit is filled with complex fertilizer. Therefore, in the next 3 years, it is not required to feed the barberry.

Starting from the 4th year, ornamental varieties require nitrogen application in the spring. They should be poured with a solution of urea (30 g per 10 liters of water). Fruit shrubs require the introduction of potassium and phosphorus. The first feeding is carried out in May-June, the second - in the fall, before preparing the plant for winter.

Often shrubs should not be fed: excess nutrition causes oppression of the plant and provokes diseases.

Crown formation

Barberry is an ideal plant for the garden. Without formation, it turns into a sprawling ball, but tangled branches are very rare: shoots grow almost vertically. The gardener is only required to timely cut out damaged and dried branches, as well as those that interfere with taking care of the shrub.

Decorative varieties can be formed in the form of any shape: pyramid, cube, cone. Novice gardeners will need a topiary frame or template for this. The hedge is usually formed in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped. After pruning, the plant should be fed: ornamental varieties should be given foliar top dressing. A fermented herb infusion will do.

After sanitary pruning in the fall, the plant is fed with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers.But it is important to remember: barberry quickly recovers, so pruning should be done regularly.

Preparing a bush for wintering

In regions where winter temperatures are rarely negative, barberry hibernates without shelter. It is enough to carry out sanitary pruning and add a mineral complex.

But in other areas, the plant requires additional preparation for winter:

Pruning

Barberry has a lush, fast-growing crown. To get a beautifully shaped bush and keep it healthy, the plant must be cut regularly.

Pruning of barberry is carried out in early spring (in March-April), before the active movement of the juice along the branches. They work with a well-sharpened pruner and a delimber, not forgetting to cover the wounds on the trunk with garden pitch.

All unnecessary and weak branches are removed, cutting them close to the trunk, without leaving hemp. In a shrub, branches grow upward, in its natural form, the crown resembles a broom or broom. You can change the shape to a bowl-shaped one by bending some branches to the sides and fixing them with stretch marks.

Barberries can be shaped into geometric shapes using plywood templates. The most popular gardeners are rectangular hedges.

Shoots growing from the roots are regularly removed.

Important! The gardener should be aware of the sharp thorns of the plant and protect his hands with gloves.

Landing features in the regions

There are no differences in planting barberry in different regions of the country. But the difference in climate affects the choice of the variety and the care of the plants.

Barberry in Siberia

Although barberry is a frost-resistant plant, some species are less suitable for cultivation in Siberia. These are the Thunberg barberry, Korean barberry, whole-edge barberry. You can opt for ordinary barberry, Amur barberry, oblong barberry. For the winter, it is recommended to cover the young bush - along the edges with a spruce forest, and then, when it snows, make a snowdrift. Large plants are tied with twine, a box is installed, where dry leaves are poured. From above, the structure is wrapped in a nonwoven material. The soil around the plant is mulched.

Barberry in the suburbs

In the climate of the Moscow region, the culture feels good. It is only important to provide the bushes with a lot of light and non-swampy soil. Common barberry, Thunberg barberry, Ottawa barberry are excellent for growing in the region.

Reproduction of barberry

You can get new copies of a plant in several ways:

• seeds;
• dividing the bush;
• cuttings;
• layering.

Seeds

Propagate barberry with seeds for a long time. But, if you want to grow a large number of hedge seedlings, spending a little money, this option is preferable.

The seeds are removed from fully ripe berries. They are washed and etched in a pink solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes. The seeds, dried to a free-flowing state, are sown in open ground in October - November.

The garden bed (school) is prepared in a sunny place, carefully digging and leveling the surface. The seeds are immersed 7-8 mm into the soil, at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other. Sprinkle the soil on top with fallen leaves, which are removed in the spring.

The seedlings are looked after in the standard way: the weeds are watered and weeded. Transplantation of young barberry to a new place is carried out in the fall. Saplings must be covered before cold weather, young shoots are tender and sensitive to frost.

Another option for seed propagation of barberry is sowing seeds for seedlings at home or in a greenhouse. In December, the seeds are placed in wet sand or a rag and buried in the snow in the garden or refrigerated for 3 months.

In March, seeds are sown in prepared peat-humus-sandy soil. Crops are kept on windowsills or in a heated greenhouse, at a temperature of +18 +20 degrees. Seedlings are transplanted into the ground in May.

Root shoots or layering

Mature barberry bushes form a lot of growth, coming from the roots.It is very easy to select a suitable layer and dig it out of the soil by chopping off the root that connects it to the mother plant with a shovel. The operation is best done in autumn or late summer.

It is necessary to ensure that the roots of an adult bush are not exposed after digging up the shoots.

Advice. A couple of days before the separation of the offspring of the barberry, the bush is watered abundantly. This makes the plant easier to handle.

New seedlings from the cuttings are transferred to the selected area immediately after digging and planted. Caring for them is standard - watered and covered for the winter.

By dividing the barberry bush

When the time comes to move the shrub to a new site, the bush is divided. A carefully dug rhizome is cleaned of soil and divided into parts with a pruner or saw. At least 3-4 growth buds should remain on each division. The cuts on the root are sprinkled with ash or covered with garden pitch.

Delenki are planted in new areas, watering and mulching the soil. The barberry is transplanted in the fall, 1.5 months before the onset of frost.

Cuttings

Gardeners recommend using lignified cuttings for propagation of barberry, they root better.

Instructions:

1. Cuttings are cut from branches, 2 years old. They are brown in color and firm to the touch. Harvesting time - October.
2. The size of the branches for propagation is 16-18 cm and the diameter is at least 5 mm. The bottom cut is made at an acute angle.
3. All leaves from the cuttings are cut off and the planting material is placed in the cellar until spring or added to the site.
4. In the spring, the twigs are rooted in a greenhouse or in a garden bed under a greenhouse. Cuttings are buried in the soil halfway and at an angle.
5. Planting care consists in regular watering, spraying branches in the heat.

By autumn, the cuttings should grow in the aboveground part and put down good roots underground. They are transplanted to a permanent place for next year.

Dates and scheme of disembarkation

Gardeners are interested in when to plant a shrub. The ideal time for planting is early spring, as soon as the snow melts. The barberry will have plenty of time to adapt to its new location and grow its root system for winter. Sometimes it is permissible to plant a bush in the fall, but in this case, the planting time should be calculated so that the plant has time to take root before the onset of stable frosts. This will take 3-4 weeks.

But if the purchased plant has a closed root system, it can be planted in summer. The bush is carefully removed from the pots, the roots are straightened, the dried ones are cut out, and placed in the planting hole.

A barberry with an open root system purchased in August can wait for spring in a buried place. To do this, a ditch is torn off, the excavated soil is piled on the southern side of the ditch. The bush is placed obliquely (with its top on a mound) and added dropwise. At the top of the hill, part of the shoots with 2-3 buds is left. With the onset of frost, the prikop is covered with white lutrasil and covered with snow.

See also

How blueberries grow in the garden, the choice of varieties and the rules of planting and careRead

Favorable neighborhood

Barberry grows intensively, but at the same time does not capture the neighboring territory. Old varieties are an exception: they give an abundance of root growth. In one place, a shrub lives up to 50 years, an adult plant does not tolerate transplantation. But during flowering, pollinating insects flock to it: and this should be used.

Experienced gardeners place beds with strawberries next to him: bees pollinate the flowers, and the yield increases. It is important to plant nearby plants that bloom at the same time as the barberry.

How to choose the right garden dweller?

Let's dwell on the features of various varieties, because planting and further care largely depend on the type of plant. And the aesthetic component plays an important role, different species differ in the size and color of the leaves.

Berberis vulgaris grows up to 3 m. The flowers are yellow, very bright and exude a sweet honey aroma. The foliage is predominantly green, although there are also decorative forms with an unusual color.For example, the cultivar Aureo-marginata has green leaves with a gold border. But the foliage of Atropurpurea is completely colored purple-violet. This variety can be planted both in sunny areas and in the shade. It has excellent frost resistance and grows well on light loams.

Shrub "Berberis vulgaris"

Berberis thunbergii is a deciduous type. It, like its predecessor, is not afraid of cold weather, but it grows no more than 1.5 m. Its berries taste bitter and are not suitable for food. The root system is incredibly powerful. Thanks to her, this variety is used to strengthen slopes and ravines. The foliage color ranges from golden yellow to purple-red, depending on the decorative form. But the Golden Ring is completely famous for its red leaves, the edges of which are decorated with a gold border.

Let's pay attention to another rather rare species - Berberis x ottawiensis. The incredibly beautiful plant grows up to 2 m in height. Its highlight is foliage, the color of which changes depending on the season. If in summer it is pink-purple, then by autumn it becomes bright crimson. Scarlet fruits also deserve admiration. The flowers have a standard yellow color. Among this species, there is Superba, reaching 4 m in height. The red leaves of this representative in the summer are distinguished by a bluish bloom, but with the onset of cold weather, their color changes to orange. Silver Miles is famous for its colorful foliage. On their red surface, gray stripes and spots are randomly located.

When and how to transplant barberry

A plant can stay in one place for more than 15 years. But, over time, the soil under it is depleted, despite the feeding. Diseases accumulate in the ground. Therefore, it is recommended to move the bushes to another place every 10 years.

It is correct to transplant the barberry bush in late summer or early autumn. Before the operation, the plant is subjected to strong pruning (removing a third of the length of all shoots) and abundant watering.

If dividing the bush is not planned, the barberry is dug in with forks from all sides and carefully removed from the soil. It is convenient to transfer the bush to a new place by placing it on a piece of tarpaulin or film.

A planting hole is dug in the size of an earthen coma. After transplanting, water and mulch abundantly.

Disease prevention

With improper care, barberry bushes are susceptible to fungal diseases: Powdery mildew covers all parts of the plant with a whitish bloom. At the end of summer, formations appear on the infected areas, where the fungus hibernates. Severely affected areas are cut out, burned. In milder cases, you can fight the disease with a 1% solution of colloidal sulfur.

Rust appears as orange spots on the upper side of the leaves, and raised brown pads on the underside of the leaves of the seedling. With a deep lesion, the leaves of the bush dry up and crumble. Rust can be defeated by treating the bushes three times with a 1% solution of colloidal sulfur or Bordeaux liquid. The processing of plants should be started as soon as the leaves appear and then regularly after 3 weeks. A barberry seedling can be eliminated from spotting by treating a solution of copper oxychloride before and after flowering.

Bacterial cancer (bacteriosis) manifests itself on the shoots of the plant with cracks, growths. It is not scary if the cancer has affected the tip of the shoot - it is enough to remove the affected area, capturing a slightly healthy one. But if the cancer has affected the part of the plant adjacent to the trunk, the shrub is doomed. The infected areas must be cut and burned, and the bush must be treated with a preparation containing copper.