Barberry
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| Barberries in spring |
Barberries
are excellent landscape plants, used in hedges, foundation plantings and as
groundcovers. There are a number of foliage colors in yellows, burgundies and
purples. Some varieties have excellent winter berry color as well as stunning
fall color. The thorny stems make them
excellent to plant as barriers to foot traffic or around houses to dissuade
invaders from hiding there. The plants
are easy to grow and care for and extremely winter hardy as well as resistant
to deer browsing.
Barberry
berries are loved by birds and larger plants are used for nesting and
cover. Some people use a planting of
low barberries in front of other plants to keep deer and rabbits away. The thick thorny branches are quite a
deterrent. They were grown as hedges to
keep farm animals confined in earlier times, but a fence might be safer
now. They can be used around chicken
pens and houses to keep out some predators- or at least make it hard for
them. And if you don’t want kids to play
in a certain area line it with barberry.
But among
Midwestern and Eastern American gardeners there is some confusion about whether
they are allowed to plant barberries. In the early 1900’s a program to
eradicate barberries began in the Midwest and northern plains states because
barberries can be a host for wheat stem rust, a serious wheat disease, that was
causing huge crop losses. At that time the woods and fields were filled with
common barberry, Berberis vulgaris, which
was brought here from Europe by early settlers and escaped into the wild. Even as early as the 1700’s European barberry
was associated with disease problems in wheat, barley and oats in Europe and
Russia but that didn’t stop people from bringing it to the new country. There are also at least two native species of
Barberry that are also hosts for wheat rust.
These were also eradicated.
Millions of
barberry plants were uprooted and destroyed with patriotic fervor and a
quarantine was imposed on importing or growing any varieties of barberry that
could be infected with the wheat rust fungus. In states with cold winters the
wheat rust fungus overwintered on barberry plants. In spring the fungus oozed sweet nectar which
attracted insects which then carried the fungus spores to wheat and certain
other grain crops like barley and oats. ( Spores can also be carried by wind.) The
eradication program was eliminated in 1975 by the federal government although
some state continued programs longer. Recently there has been talk of a new
program to eradicate wild barberry, since wild colonies of common barberry are
burgeoning again and new strains of wheat stem rust are being found.
However if
gardeners get their barberry plants from a reputable nursery they don’t have to
worry that they will be infecting wheat fields with a serious disease or that
the “garden police” will arrive to uproot their plants. Every type or cultivar of barberry that is
sold in the US has to go through a process of testing and registering that can
take two years or more to make sure that that variety cannot get the wheat rust
fungus. Each cultivar is given a
registration number that makes it legal to sell or grow it. Most of these garden safe barberries come
from Japanese Barberry Berberis
thunbergii although a few species and hybrids of species from China and
other places are occasionally seen.
Growing barberry
You will want
to start with a plant from a good nursery of course, to make sure you are
getting a legal variety. Barberry can be
started from seed but the seedlings will be highly variable. There’s also a possibility that seed grown
plants may be hybrids with common barberry or another cultivar that carries
wheat rust as barberry plants interbreed easily. Never dig up plants from wild areas, even
horticulture varieties can be aggressive spreaders but you won’t know if these
carry wheat rust.
Barberry will
grow in full sun and partial shade. They
are not fussy about soil conditions.
They transplant well and are quite winter hardy. They like fertile, well drained but moist
soil but can tolerate sandy dry soil and moderate drought. Most varieties are deciduous, dropping their
leaves in the fall, leaving a show of berries beloved by birds. A few varieties that are less winter hardy and
grown in more southern areas have semi-evergreen or evergreen foliage.
Barberries
have small rounded leaves that come in several interesting colors of
chartreuse, lemon, gold, rose, pink, red, orange and purple. Even green forms may have scarlet or orange
fall foliage. In spring they have small
yellow flowers hidden under the leaves, which will turn into small elongated
red berries in the fall and persist into winter or until the birds find them.
Green
foliaged barberry is occasionally sold for hedges but most ornamental
barberries will have some sort of interesting foliage color for the
landscape. Some varieties have lots of
red berries for fall color but some are sterile or nearly sterile and don’t
produce many berries. Barberries with
colored foliage have some tendency to revert to green foliage and when green
sprigs appear they should be pruned out.
Since most
barberries have small thorns on the stems you’ll want to take care where you
plant them. There are a few varieties
that are thornless or nearly so but they are hard to find. There are also several forms and sizes among
barberries so chose what’s good for your space and needs. They range from
compact groundcovers 18 inches or so in height to those varieties that are tall
and narrow for hedges. Many varieties
have arching stems in a loose bush form.
Barberries take pruning well and can be shaped if needed to fit their
space.
Prune
barberries after flowering. If you have
overgrown, messy shrubs they can be taken down in a hard prune to 18 inches or
so from the ground and will re-grow.
Most barberries look best however if allowed to develop a natural
arching form. Fertilize after a deep
pruning and it’s also helpful to lightly fertilize barberry in early spring,
especially in poor soils.
Barberries
have a few minor insect and disease problems that generally don’t seriously
harm the plant. Anthracnose causes dark
spots on the leaves with a yellow margin.
Sometimes barberries get powdery mildew in wet, cool conditions, which
seldom kill the plant. Barberry
caterpillars are small dark worms that tie the leaf tips together with a fine
web. Barberries also get scale and
sometimes aphids. These can be
controlled with insecticides.
Some
gardeners think of barberry as a non-native invasive plant and its true birds
will spread the berries and plants will pop up in unexpected places. If this worries you locate varieties which
produce few berries or are sterile.
Japanese barberry can invade woods and fields and when it’s seen should
probably be removed. However most modern
varieties do not naturalize as easily as European barberry (B. vulgaris) or spread as quickly as
native varieties, Allegheny barberry B.
canadensis and Colorado barberry B.
fendleri, which are actually getting harder to find since the great
eradication event. In many states it’s
not legal to grow the natives or Common European barberry in gardens.
Varieties of Barberry
Northern
gardeners ( Zone 7 and lower) will want to stick to approved registered
varieties of Japanese barberry Berberis thunbergii and possibly a few
hybrids. Here are some good garden
varieties: B. atropurpurea, an older purple leaved variety from
which many newer cultivars have been developed such as ‘Crimson Pygmy', red foliage, 2’ compact, and ‘Rose Glow’, rosy pink foliage spotted with purple, purple fall
color, 6’ tall.
‘Aurea’
is a golden yellow foliage barberry which has little fruit. 'Kobold'
looks much like boxwood, with green foliage and a tight 2’ mound of foliage
that doesn’t need pruning. ‘Dart's Red
Lady' actually has purple foliage that turns red in fall, 5’ high. 'Lime
Glow' is a medium sized chartreuse foliaged barberry. 'Orange Rocket' has orange
summer foliage, red orange in fall, 'Helmond
Pillar' has green foliage, and a narrow columnar shape 2’ wide and 5’ high.
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| Barberry in fall. |
Culinary and medicinal
use of barberry
The reason
Common or European barberry was brought to America was because the berries were
used for jams and jellies as a bonus to their being excellent hedge plants,
often used to pen animals. A yellow dye
is made from the bark. Barberries also
had many medicinal uses.
The berries
have a tart, acidic flavor and needed sugar in quantity when making jam or
jelly. They were actually grown in rows
for this purpose in medieval Europe but are seldom used for this today. They
were used like lemon zest for flavoring some dishes also. Mid-eastern cultures used the berries to
flavor rice and candies and Iran still grows barberries for this use, although
an epidemic of wheat rust disease in the Mid-East may change that.
Barberries
contain the chemical Berberine, which inhibits bacterial growth and stimulates
the immune system. Berberine also increases certain liver functions according
to modern research. Leaves, berries,
bark and roots of barberry have been used in various folk remedies in Europe
and the Mid-East and Asia. Native
Americans used their barberries less often for medicinal use but the berries
were eaten as food, usually cooked with meat dishes or added to fat.
In Europe
barberries seemed to be one of those all-purpose remedies, used for ailments
from skin conditions, to stomach upset and diarrhea, for respiratory diseases,
to induce abortion, and of course for liver and gall bladder problems.
Modern
research has shown some effects on liver function and in the treatment of
polycystic ovarian disease and diabetes.
Here’s a link to a study review –
which found that barberry extract worked as well as
metformin for polycystic ovarian disease treatment and lowered blood
glucose. Modern medicine is also
studying berberine for use as a bladder infection remedy, skin disease and even
cancer cures.
Before using
barberry in home remedies be aware that many prescription medications interact
with it. Do not use if you are taking
diabetes medications, antibiotics, blood pressure medications, blood thinners, Celebrex,
diuretics, antihistamines- or just about any prescription meds. Pregnant women should not use barberry
medications because it can cause miscarriage and/or jaundice and liver problems
in infants.
Don’t be
afraid to grow barberries in the garden.
They are colorful, low care, hardy shrubs and registered varieties won’t
upset the farmers in your area.
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