A prickly subject is our Berberis unless you pick with care.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berberis Julianea is a colourful low maintenance foliage plant with flowers, berries and prickles! Good Berberis are  prickly flowering shrubs often with fragrant flowers ranging in colours from pale primrose to pumpkin orange, light pink to darker red.

Choose your Berberis Variety

• One of the more attractive garden varieties shown above is the Berberis darwinii, with bright orange flowers in mid-spring.  An evergreen preferring full sun and a moist soil it grows slowly to around 8 feet. The flowers are followed by berries that feed birds and wild life through Autumn and Winter.
• There is also the pink-flowered Berberis x stenophylla ‘Pink Pearl’.
• The purple-leaved Berberis thunbergii loses its leaves in winter.
• Look for Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea ‘Nana’ if you want to grow an attractive prickly hedge.
• Berberis ‘Georgei’ AGM is a good specimen plant but it may be hard to find in nurseries because there are so many others on offer. In the wild there are 450 species and add to that the many hybrids and cultivars on offer.
• Red leaved and asiatic species are often deciduous with red berries and good leaf colour in Autumn. Evergreens tend to produce blue-black fruits and are more shade tolerant.
• Berberis thunbergii ‘Rose Glow’ is an eye-catching cultivar which has young leaves that are purple as they emerge and within a few weeks begin to show pleasing swirls of pink and cream variegation. Pale yellow flowers in spring are followed by small, shiny red fruit later in the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Gardeners Tips on how to grow Berberis see link
There is a National Collections of Magnolias, Knaphill azaleas and Berberis at Sherwood, Newton St Cyres, Exeter Devon

Gardeners Tips Favourite Links

• The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)
• Alpine Garden Society (AGS)
• Garden Organic the national charity for organic gardening formerly Henry Double Day Research
• BBC Gardening

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These attractive leaves on Berberis thunbergii Harlequin are purple red fading in autumn to pink. On robust plants the flowers will be yellow with a pink tinge and be followed by red berries.