The genus of barberry includes many varieties of deciduous and evergreen shrubs. They are decorative at different times of the season. Small golden or orange-red fragrant flowers, collected in a brush, are excellent melliferous. In the period of fruiting, a variety of berries are beautiful in shape and color, and elegant autumn colored leaves perfectly adorn the garden. Low-grown species of barberry are used in curbs, on the Alpine hill, and tall ones are more suitable for group and single plantations. Since barberry is a thorny shrub, it is often used in hedges , both for decoration and simply instead of fence to protect from uninvited guests. To grow a hedge from barberry, you will need quite a few plant bushes for planting.
Planting barberry
Barberry grows by cuttings, root offspring, division of bushes, and also by seeds. However, the cultivation of barberry from seeds is a very long process, much faster to replicate it in a vegetative way from an adult bush. If you still decided to grow barberry from seeds, you should remember that the seed coat is very hard, so you must first withstand them in sand or peat (stratify) at a temperature of +5 degrees for 2-5 months. If you sow the barberry in the fall, immediately after the seeds are taken from the berries, then in the soil they will pass a natural stratification. In summer the seeds will give amicable shoots. After appearing on two real sheets, the planting must be thinned out. Seedlings for two years will grow in one place, then they must be transplanted to a permanent place.
Barberry loves a bright place in the garden, although she tolerates penumbra. However, if you plant it in the shade, then it will not bear fruit at all. For a hedge, the plant must be planted 1 meter from each other, and if it is a single planting, then the distance to other plants should be at least two meters.
The soil for planting barberry is to be fertilized and well drained, so that there is no stagnation of water, then the care for it will be uncomplicated. Before planting seedlings of barberry in autumn, the soil should be dug to a depth of 60 cm, cleaned of weeds. For a hedge, it will be necessary to excavate a trench. In the planting holes first fall asleep a fertile layer of soil, and then we introduce fertilizer: organic, potassium salt, superphosphate. That the roots of the seedling are not in contact with the fertilizer, it must be well mixed with the soil. If the soil is acidic, then ash or lime should be added to the well. Then we plant a seedling, spreading all its roots, fall asleep with soil and compact it well. Then water, mulch peat or humus and cut shoots to 3-4 developed kidneys.
Caring for barberry
The shrub is drought-resistant and unpretentious in care. Therefore, care for barberry is in regular watering in the dry season, weeding weeds and loosening the land around the bushes. It is also necessary to trim old shoots. In the spring, before the buds begin to bud, it is necessary to cut off all weak and sick shoots and in their place will soon grow many new ones.
Adult bushes of barberry are abundant and regularly bear fruit. Another name for barberry is caramel: its fruits are very similar to these sweet and sour candies. These very useful berries are used for home preparations, cooking pilaf, seasoning meat. Edible in barberry even leaves that taste like sorrel.
Growing barberry and caring for it will bring you both pleasure and benefit.