The word "barberry" is often associated with the same name candy candies with a slight sourness. In fact, barberry is a shrub. It is used both for decorative purposes, and in medicinal, and in culinary, and even in bank protection.
In this article, read:
- 1 Useful Properties
- 2 Variety of species
- 3 Barbaris in landscape design
- 4 Landing in the ground
- 5 Proper Care
- 6 Reproduction
- 7 Autumn bushes for the garden. Barberry. Video
- 8 Green in spring, red in autumn - barberry
Beneficial features
From the bark, wood and roots of barberry, yellow paint is obtained. From the red oblong fruits prepare a variety of jams, jams and pastilles, the above-mentioned sweets, unusually tasty and fragrant, reminiscent of the taste of childhood. And also - berries are very useful because of the high content of vitamins, tartaric and citric acid in them. Juice barberry by its qualities may well replace the lemon.
The leaves of barberry are also edible. They are added to soups and marinades. Some people make berries and leaves of prickly plants even honey.
Barberry has medicinal properties. In folk medicine, the roots, bark, leaves and fruits of this unique plant are widely used to heal a variety of ailments. For example, decoction of roots helps with cough and pneumonia, and also quenches thirst and lowers body temperature. Berries strengthen the heart muscle, reduce blood pressure and improve blood circulation. Even 650 years BC. berries cleaned the blood, as evidenced by records on clay tablets, surviving to our times.
But most often, ornamental bushes are decorated with gardens and plots, city streets and parks. It pleases the eye at any time of the year: beginning with spring, during flowering, and ending with autumn, when among the purple-scarlet leaves ruby fruits are seen.
A magnificent bush barberry stands out in the garden with abundant red berries of elongated shape.
In folk medicine barberry berries are used as a choleretic agent.
Variety of species
Barberry has more than 500 species. However, the most common are 3:
- barberry common;
- barberry Tunberg;
- barberry ottawa.
The highest variety of plants can reach a height of 4 m, the lowest one - 30 cm. Dwarf varieties have compact dense crowns, while their tall representatives have in most cases drooping branches. Blossom bushes in late spring, and after 1.5-2 months they shed berries, which, as a rule, have an elongated shape and a dark red color.
For large cities with a disturbed ecology, the Tunberga barberry is best suited with beautiful leaves of red or yellow (golden) color. In the Golden Ring variety, the red leaves are honed with a gold fringe. This is a low shrub, having a hemispherical shape with deviating arched branches. And Rose Glow has on the leaves white droplets and intermittent strips.
Barberry Tounberg has long spines and a large root system. It is ideal for creating impassable hedges. The bush is perfectly combined with garden flowers with small inflorescences and leaves. It looks good with other bushes and small trees. Plant it and to strengthen ravines and slopes. However, it has one feature: the berries have a bitter taste, so they are not used in cooking. Propagates mainly by seeds.
Barberry common, called in the people by a tart, also easily survives in urban conditions. It is very frosty, unpretentious and grows well on loamy soils. This is a beautiful branchy shrub, reaching a height of 3 m. Blooms bright yellow flowers, collected in racemose inflorescences, with a honey aroma. He loves the sun and heat, on shaded areas it is better not to plant, near tall trees - too. His berries are sweet, they are widely used in folk medicine and cooking. There are forms with yellow and white fruits. It goes well with all the plants used to decorate the garden.
And Barbaris Ottawa in our country is a rare guest. He has very beautiful leaves that change their color: in the summer they are dark purple, when they hit the sun they become almost black. And in the autumn the leaves are bright red. The flowers are yellow. The shrub tolerates low temperatures and is characterized by rapid growth.
Barbary Tunberg.
Barberry is ordinary.
Barberry Ottawa "Superba".
Barbaris in landscape design
As a decorative element, barberry is not equal among other plants. It is with him that effective compositions are created in landscape design. For the design of paths and curbs low-growing varieties are used, as a hedgerow and solitaires - higher "brethren".
Barberry is perfectly combined with annual and perennial flowers, other shrubs and garden trees. Thanks to the beautiful coloring of the leaves and their wide color range - from ruby and violet to yellow and green hues, it brings a special charm to the design. It is used in a variety of contrasting variants with other plants, in the creation of alpine hills and flat rosaries. Shrub can serve as a background, and can also dominate the landscape composition. In Japanese gardens, dwarf varieties are a great substitute for small-leaved azaleas.
Barbaris will ennoble and beautify any site. The main thing is to give a flight of fantasy. There is a bush and one more valuable quality - it is prickly. Therefore, the hedge from barberry will perfectly protect the garden from uninvited animals.
The unpretentiousness of barbarians is amazing: they are not afraid of winds, droughts, are not demanding of soils, they can grow in the shade and in open windy places.
Landing in the ground
Barberry can be planted in any soil, however, on fertile lands it grows better. If the soil is acidic, it must be proclaimed. It is best to plant the shrubbery in a neutral substrate (sand, humus + sod land). But clay in the ground can be harmful to the plant. It retains moisture, and barberry does not like waterlogging, because in the wild it occurs in the steppes and on the plains where the supply of water is limited.
The best place to plant will be an open sunny area. Then the bush will please you with bright leaves and a lush crown. If using a plant to create a hedge, then the place is suitable for anyone. However, dark places will reflect on its leaves: they will lose decorativeness and will have the usual green color.
Landing can be done in spring and autumn. Autumn planting is preferable to the fact that during the winter months the seedling has time to take root, and in the spring its active growth begins. Spring planting should be early, until the bush "did not wake up."
Somewhere a month before landing, we prepare the soil: dig it up and remove the weeds. Then we process with lime, organic, superphosphate and potassium salt.
The seedlings are planted in holes and ridges (to obtain a hedgerow). At the bottom of the excavated hole should be poured compost, superphosphate and wood ash. Then sprinkle all the sand and put a seedling. We fall asleep a hole and we compact it with earth. Watering.
If the barberry is planted for the purpose of harvesting, then the seedlings should be at least 2, because shrub refers to cross-pollinated plants. The distance between the bushes should be 1.5-2 m.
To prepare a hedge, we prepare the soil, as described above. Then we mark out the ground: we put the pegs and pull the rope. If a tight landing is expected, then by digging we dig a trench. The scheme of a dense planting: 4 seedlings per 1 sq. Km. m. You can also plant 2 bushes per 1 sq. km. m.
Barberry bushes are used in landscape design to create a dense hedgerows.
Example of the lawn decoration with bushes of barberry.
Decorated bushes of barberry in landscape design.
Proper care
Decorative bush is highly appreciated for unpretentiousness. Care of him is simple and does not take much time. It consists of feeding, watering, regular loosening, weeding and pruning.
A year after planting, the seedling should be supplemented with urea, diluted in a small amount of water, or other nitrogen-containing fertilizers. The next fertilizing with nitrogen will be carried out only after 3 years. Barbaris is also responsive to complex fertilizers that can be purchased at the store.
Sanitary pruning consists in the removal of dry, damaged twigs and thinning. It is easy to cut and give a variety of shapes. You can do this almost at any time of the year. The hedges are sheared in June and August, cutting from ½ to 2/3 of the aboveground part.
Watering is carried out once a week.
The ground under the bushes should be periodically loosened. Its deep roots can not withstand stagnant moistening. Experienced gardeners suggest mulching the soil immediately after planting, then the need for frequent loosening will disappear.
Among plant pests, it is possible to isolate barberry barley, which leads to wrinkling and drying of the leaves. In spring, the bushes need to be sprayed with a solution of makhorka (brew 10 l of water in 0,5 kg of makhorka and add laundry soap) or simply with a soap solution (300 grams of laundry soap per 10 l of water).
Reproduction
For the first planting, the ornamental plant seedling is best purchased at a specialized store. But if a beautiful specimen is already growing in the garden, then cuttings or layers can be obtained from it. Both the one and the other method of reproduction are successfully used by amateur gardeners.
Reproduction черенкованием: нужно нарезать черенки и укоренить их в теплице. Полить ускорителем роста и накрыть пленкой. По мере подсыхания грунта производить полив. Когда появятся первые листочки, теплицу открывают, чтобы черенки закалялись. Не забывайте регулярно рыхлить почву. Через 2 года саженцы можно пересадить на выбранное место.
For layers, one should select the annual branches on the adult mother bush, tilt them into the grooves dug to a depth of 20 cm and fix them. Fall asleep with earth, leaving only the top of the branch. If you work in the spring, then in the autumn there will already be ready saplings.
The third way is propagation by seeds. We need to collect the seeds of ripe berries, rinse and dry them. Treat with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Sow in prepared soil before the onset of cold weather. If the seeds are sown in the spring, then they must necessarily be stratified. When the seedlings grow up, choose the strongest ones from them and transplant them to the planned place. Fruiting in young bushes will occur in the third year.
Barberry can be propagated by dividing the bush. To do this, it must be carefully digged and cut. Try not to damage the roots.
After fixing your site with barberry, you can not only achieve new landscape solutions, but also get a tasty and healthy berry, about 1 kg from the bush.
