Picturesque shrubs decorating garden plots often serve as plant hedges and even borders. Barberry is attractive with brightly colored multi-colored foliage and sour berries, saturated with vitamins used in folk medicine and suitable for delicious homemade preserves. Breeding shrubs is not difficult and does not take much time. One of the most sought-after varieties in Russia is the Thunberg Bagatel barberry, which differs from the rest of the species in small size. It corresponds to the exact translation from French: the name means "trinket".
Description of Barberry Bagatel
The plant is a dwarf shrub in the form of a compact ball up to 30 cm and 60 cm in height, with a red-brown bark with spikes and fine, oblong, leathery foliage, covered with dense shiny skin. The color of the leaves in the sun is usually purple or thick red, in a shaded place with a green tint. Often the sheets are covered with contrasting spots or surprise with embossed bordering. In the fall they become bright carmine, and in winter the bush loses its foliage.
Design
A bush blooms in late spring and early summer with miniature yellowish flowers grouped in inflorescences. Ripening occurs in September. The edible berries of the Barberg of Thunberg Bagatelle elongated, covered with shiny skin, have a pleasant sour taste.
Red
Planting a plant
Ornamental shrub is unpretentious to growing conditions, does not require special care, is not afraid of wind and sun.
When to plant
The time of transfer of barberry to the plot is selected depending on the condition of the planting material. A bush bought directly in a container with soil can be transplanted at any convenient time, even in summer. In this case, it is important to pay attention to the main points:
- It is advisable to transplant in cool weather;
- at first, you should obscure the young bush from direct rays of the sun.
Berberis thunbergii seedlings, extracted from the soil, are usually transplanted into the open ground in early spring, when the buds have not yet begun to bloom. It is not recommended to plant at a later date, so that the plant takes root better and does not hurt.
Note! You can plant bushes in September. The plant adapts well even in cold Siberian conditions.
Wild
Choosing a place and soil
Thanks to the unpretentiousness of barberry Tunberga, he feels equally well:
- in the lowlands;
- under the cover of fences;
- in the light shade of trees;
- on blown up hills.
Placement in the shade is favorable for species with green-yellow leaves that cannot tolerate direct sunlight. Red-leaf varieties, in contrast, need good lighting. Without it, they will lose their picturesqueness.
Barberry Bagatel is able to take root on almost any soil, except acidic. It takes root even on sandy and rocky ground, but prefers fertile neutral land, which on the eve of transplanting into it bush must certainly be liming. It is best to pre-pour substances that reduce the acid composition of the soil immediately into a hole dug for the bush. Experienced gardeners advise planting a plant in a substrate consisting of sod land, supplemented by:
- sand;
- humus (or compost);
- 200 g of calcium hydroxide hydrated (slaked lime);
- 200 g of peat (or wood ash);
- superphosphate (100 g).
Important! With natural soil acidity, ash and lime need not be added.
The shrub does not tolerate high humidity, it will not feel comfortable on swampy, flooded lands or in places with closely spaced groundwater. In such cases, tall flower beds or ridges are usually poured to breed barberry. In alumina, planting holes are dug 10 cm deeper, and the bottom is covered with drainage pebbles.
Fencing
How to accurately plant
Wells 40x40 cm in size are dug out in advance - 15-20 days before planting. In connection with the rapid growth of shrubs, they are placed at a minimum distance of one and a half meters. With a live fence, the gap can be reduced to half a meter. In the process of planting:
- Drain and sand are poured into the bottom of the hole.
- Fill the hole with a prepared nutrient mixture.
- Generously moisten with moisture.
- Plants are planted in the pit.
- Carefully spread the roots.
- Fill up the remaining soil.
Specialists propose to mulch the near-stem circle with peat or compost to create favorable conditions for the young bush - to retain moisture and nutrients.
Additional Information! For better rooting, a barberry seedling is cut to 3-5 strong buds.
How to care for barberry bagatelle
The ornamental shrub is famous for its undemanding nature, however, there are certain subtleties of leaving, without which it is impossible to achieve its magnificent appearance.
Border
Watering
Shrub irrigation is required only in sultry times. Lack of water is better for him than brute force. In cool weather, the bushes have enough natural rainfall. In the hot season, enough buckets for each bush twice a month. Immediately after planting, the barberry Bagatel, according to the description of professionals, must be moistened to complete rooting from 1 to 2 times a week.
Important! Do not water the plant with cold water from the column. It should settle in a barrel and warm in the sun.
In the process of watering, you must try so that moisture does not fall on the foliage, but is directed under the roots. Experienced gardeners arrange drip irrigation for barberry.
Top dressing
The shrub responds well to feeding, although in the first 2 years of fertilizer is not required - enough made during planting. In the spring, during a period of rapid growth and flowering, he needs nitrogen. For this, 30 g of the product is diluted in a 10-liter container. The procedure is repeated every 3 or 4 years. Phosphoric and potassium fertilizers are applied in the summer, when fruit sets, and in the fall, after ripening and harvesting.
Pruning
Like all ornamental shrubs, the barberry Bagatel should be cut to:
- preservation of spherical shape;
- growth stimulation;
- eliminate dry shoots;
- increase yields.
The compact shape of the plant, collected in hedges, allows you to abandon pruning to give a beautiful shape. Alone, growing bushes are usually shaped like a ball. In the spring, sanitization is performed by removing dry, frozen and diseased stems. Formative circumcision is required twice a year - in June and August. From a third to 2/3 of the length of the stem are removed.
Globular
Flowering period
Bagatel barberry blooms in May or June with numerous small yellowish flowers up to 1 cm in diameter, collected in racemose inflorescences. The shrub for 3 weeks is covered with them, but usually they are poorly visible among the lush crown.
Breeding methods
The bush is bred in four main ways:
- seed;
- cuttings;
- plant division;
- using layering.
Seeds are obtained from the fruit after ripening. Autumn bones:
- Extracted from berries.
- For 2-3 minutes, put in potassium permanganate.
- Dried.
- Sown in the ground to a depth of 1 cm.
In the spring season, the first sprouts appear. After the appearance of two true leaves, they must be thinned out, leaving a gap between the seedlings of at least 3 cm. After 2 years, the shrubs are transplanted to a permanent place.
Additional Information! With spring sowing, barberry seeds are stratified. To do this, they are mixed with sand and kept in the refrigerator for 3-5 months at a temperature of 2 to 5 degrees.
Seed breeding requires a lot of time and labor.
With the Cherenkov method of reproduction, which is best done early in the morning, the processes:
- Cut from a bush in a horse in June.
- Break off the bottom leaves.
- Dip the tips of the branches in a growth stimulating agent.
- After washing, place in a nutrient substrate.
To root the sprouts, it is necessary to maintain soil moisture and the greenhouse environment by covering with a film. From time to time it needs to be ajar for ventilation. After 2 years, the young bush is transplanted to a permanent place.
The simplest way to breed barberry is layering. To receive them in the spring:
- They dig a surface groove near the bush.
- They bend and place the strongest lower shoot in it.
- Fill the ditch with soil.
On the surface there will be one tip. During the summer, it will take root. Fresh bush can be transplanted to a permanent site.
The division of the plant is used for low 3-5-year-old bushes with a root neck deepened by 10 cm into the ground. They dig a bush from the ground and divide it into equal parts, carefully separating the roots and trying not to damage them. Slices should be treated with crushed coal.
Bagatelle
Diseases and Pests
To prevent damage to Barberry by insects (aphids, caterpillars), it is recommended to inspect the bushes from time to time and treat them with soapy water and 0.3% chlorophos. Prevention of diseases by rust and powdery mildew at the beginning of the growing season consists in spraying 1% colloidal sulfur and 1% Bordeaux liquid.
Note! In case of infection, the shrub is treated with fungicidal preparations in accordance with the instructions.
Winter preparations
The shrub is winter hardy: under the cover of snow, it tolerates frosts, although for a long time it is not very comfortable under the snowdrifts. In a snowless winter, the plant may freeze. Experienced gardeners advise, just in case, to cover young plants with fir branches, straw or a special fabric. In late autumn, it is advisable to mulch the root soil with dry leaves, sawdust, compost.
Flowerbed
Use in landscape design
Due to the variety of colors of foliage, you can get all kinds of interesting combinations, turning the site into a real greenhouse. This task can be done even by an ordinary amateur. Barberry Bagatel is very popular among landscape designers due to the seasonal change in appearance. It is used for decoration:
- living fences and borders;
- rock gardens and flower beds;
- balconies and terraces;
- group compositions.
Additional Information! The value of barberry for urban design and landscaping lies in the fact that it perfectly tolerates gassy and dusty city air.
Beneficial features
Traditional medicine since ancient times uses a plant saturated with vitamins. Prescriptions for medicines from barberry Bagatella are found in Indian, Chinese, ancient Greek manuscripts. Potions are made from bark, roots, leaves, but berries are especially useful. The plant contains:
- pectin, helping to get rid of toxins;
- vitamin C;
- fruit acids (malic, citric, tartaric);
- serotonin (a chemical mood regulator);
- berberine is an alkaloid with an antimicrobial effect.
Multi-colored
Herbal remedies are used in the form of decoctions, infusions, teas. Fruits differ in the mass of healing qualities:
- choleretic;
- easy laxative effect;
- antipyretic;
- thinning and removing phlegm;
- antiemetic;
- immunostimulating;
- tonic;
- antioxidant;
- antispasmodic;
- painkillers.
Important! Like all herbal remedies, barberry can cause an allergic reaction. Therefore, before starting use, you should consult a doctor.
In addition to medicine, plant juice has been successfully used in cosmetology to reduce wrinkles and smooth the skin, to care for hair and eliminate dandruff.
Helpful information! The shrub is a wonderful honey plant that attracts all the surrounding bees.
Thanks to its picturesque red leaves of various shades and unpretentiousness of cultivation, Barberry Tunberg is successfully used for decorating garden plots and fences. Delicious drinks, desserts and traditional medicine are prepared from sour berries saturated with vitamins.
