Contents
Barberry Thunberg Golden Ring every year is gaining popularity not only among landscape designers, but also among fans of country farming.
Description of barbaris Thunberg Golden Ring
Before proceeding to the description of the Golden Ring barberry, it is worth noting that the shrub is a nominee for the Award of Garden Merit – awarding varieties of garden plants. Nominated barberry Golden Ring was the board of the Royal Horticultural Society of England in 2002 for its decorative appearance and undemanding in matters of care and cultivation.
Barberry Thunberg Golden Ring was bred by students of the Faculty of Forest Sciences at the University of Toronto in 1950. To carry out scientific breeding work, the barberry of the thunberg Atropurpurea was taken as the basis, as the mother material. The presence of the main maternal gene is clearly visible in the Golden Ring barberry. Initially, the shrub was used for landscaping the urban landscape, and subsequently gained popularity among fans of country farming.
Barberry Thunberg Golden Ring has the appearance of a shrub. Only 10 years after planting, it will be able to reach a maximum height of 2,5 m. In this case, the spherical crown will reach a diameter of 3 m.
It is safe to say that the Thunberg Golden Ring barberry is endowed with good growth power and is able to add up to 30 cm in height and width in a calendar year.
In the early stages of development, the crown of the shrub has a funnel shape, and at later stages it acquires a sprawling shape with drooping branches.
In different periods of the growing season, the color range of the bark of the shoots also varies:
- at a young age there is a bright red hue;
- in adulthood, the barberry Thunberg Golden Ring acquires a darker shade of red.
The bark on the shoots has a ribbed structure with the obligatory presence of single thorns.
The leaf plate has an alternate arrangement and an elliptical shape with a maximum length of 3-4 cm.
The color of the leaves varies depending on the season:
- in summer – a dark shade of red with a narrow golden or golden-green edging along the edge;
- in autumn – a uniform coating of dark red, orange or purple hue.
It was because of the color scheme of the leaf plate that the shrub was given the name Golden Ring, which literally means “golden ring”.
The flower stalks of the barberry Golden Ring have a racemose shape, there are no more than 5 pieces of red color with a yellow tint. The size of one flower does not exceed 1 cm in diameter and has a rounded shape. You can see a flowering shrub only from May 15 to May 31.
Fruiting occurs by mid-September. Barberry Golden Ring berry has the shape of an ellipse of red color with a glossy sheen. The fruits are resistant to shedding and are able to keep well on the branches even at negative air temperatures.
Barberry Golden Ring in landscape design
Due to its original and bright color, the shrub perfectly merges into any design project for landscaping a personal plot. The photo shows how organically the Thunberg barberry Golden Ring looks in group (photo 4-7) and single (photo 1, 2) plantings. Also, a good solution would be to use a shrub as a hedge (photo 8, 9) or in the formation of a rock garden (photo 3).
Planting and caring for barberry Thunberg Golden Ring
Even novice gardeners will not have questions related to planting and caring for the Golden Ring barberry. The shrub is absolutely unpretentious to growing conditions, but still there are some subtleties that will be discussed later.
Seedling and planting preparation
The site for planting barberry must be prepared in the fall:
- The place of future landing must be dug up to a depth of at least 50 cm.
- Remove all weeds.
- Sow siderates: mustard, oil radish, phacelia.
- In the spring, before planting, the site again needs to be dug up with the obligatory embedding of green manure grass seedlings into the ground.
- With low acidity of the soil, it is necessary to carry out liming – 400 g of slaked lime per 1 seedling.
Barberry Thunberg Golden Ring will feel good in sunny areas with light shading. A full shadow will not allow you to see the color saturation of the leaf plates and, importantly, the golden edging of the leaves.
When choosing a site for planting barberry, an important condition will be the absence of groundwater close to the soil surface. With prolonged stagnation of water, the root system of the shrub will simply rot, and the plant will die.
Rules of landing
Before planting seedlings, it is necessary to prepare the holes:
- For a single planting, the hole should have a size of 50x50x50 cm. The distance between the seedlings is at least 2 m.
- When planning to plant a hedge, it is best to prepare a trench with the same width and depth parameters. The length of the trench in this case directly depends on the length of the future hedge. In this case, the barberry must be planted at a distance of 50 cm from one another.
Further steps for preparing holes or trenches are absolutely identical:
- Drainage should be laid at the bottom of the planting hole. Broken brick, sawdust and crushed stone will help to cope with this issue.
- The soil mixture used for planting should consist of soddy soil, humus and sand, which are mixed in a ratio of 2:2:2.
- Fertilizers must be applied to the prepared soil substrate. A bucket of organics will need 200 g of superphosphate and 60 g of potassium salt.
- The finished soil mixture is poured over the drainage.
The planting holes are ready, now it is necessary to prepare the Golden Ring barberry seedlings for planting.
If the seedling was purchased in a pot with a closed root system, then planting occurs by transferring the plant from the container to the hole.
If the root system is open, then the roots must be carefully straightened and the seedling planted. Next, the seedling is shed with water and covered with earth.
When properly planted, the root neck of the shrub should be at ground level. After planting, the soil around the seedling must be slightly compacted.
Next, the seedlings must be well shed, no less than a bucket of water under each bush. After watering, the ground under the shrub is mulched with peat or sawdust to better retain moisture.
Watering and top dressing
At the first stages of development, young seedlings need frequent watering – at least once a week. Additional fertilization is not required. The shrub will have enough of those that were made at the time of planting.
Only from the second year of life, the plant will need nitrogen fertilizers, you can use urea or ammonium nitrate. For each bush you will need a matchbox of fertilizer diluted in a bucket of water. Pour top dressing strictly under the root of the plant. Subsequent fertilization is carried out every 4-5 years.
The shrub does not require frequent watering, the amount of precipitation will be quite enough to moisten. If the summer turned out to be very hot and dry, then one root watering per week will be quite enough for the barberry.
Do not forget about loosening the near-trunk circle with the removal of all weeds. The depth of loosening should be no more than 3 cm. This procedure will also be an excellent solution to the issue of aeration.
Trimming
Pruning is an important stage in the development of a shrub. There are 2 types of pruning:
- Sanitary.
- Formative.
When starting any of the stages, it is important to remember that the shrub has thorns, so you need to be extremely careful when carrying out work related to pruning.
Sanitary pruning of shrubs is carried out in early spring. This work includes the removal of frozen, damaged, dry shoots with the obligatory subsequent processing of the cut points with garden pitch or copper sulphate.
Biennial shoots that are able to bloom and bear fruit are pruned in autumn until frost.
When using a shrub for decorative purposes, pruning is a must. It is carried out from the next year after planting, cutting off 70% of above-ground shoots. Formative pruning is carried out 2 times a year – at the beginning and at the end of the summer period.
Preparation for winter
Barberry Thunberg Golden Ring is characterized by increased winter hardiness and does not need shelter for the winter. But it is better to play it safe and cover the seedlings of the first year of vegetation.
Reproduction
Reproduction of barberry Thunberg Golden Ring is carried out:
- seeds;
- cuttings;
- division of the bush.
For propagation using seeds, it is necessary to prepare planting material. Seeds need to be collected only from the most ripened fruits, dried and processed by soaking in a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes.
Seeds can be sown in late autumn directly into the ground. During the winter months, they will undergo a natural stratification. During spring planting, the seeds are deepened into wet sand and placed in the refrigerator for 2 months for artificial stratification. After this time, the sprouts can be planted in open ground. Of all the young sprouts, in a year it will be necessary to select the strongest and transplant to a permanent place.
To propagate the shrub using cuttings, it is necessary to collect material from young shoots of the first year of vegetation. From the middle of the shoot, a future stalk is cut out no more than 10 cm long.
The upper part of the cutting must be cut strictly horizontally, while the lower part is cut at an angle of 45 °. Next, the cutting is placed in an aqueous solution with a rooting agent (kornevin, heteroauxin) for a week. Only after that it can be planted in the ground under cover. Watering the planted cuttings is carried out as needed, but loosening the soil should be carried out at least 2 times a week.
By dividing the Thunberg Golden Ring barberry bush, it can be propagated only when it reaches 5 years of age. To do this, the bush must be carefully dug up and the root processes divided into 3 parts, after which the finished seedlings can be planted again in the ground.
Diseases and pests
The Thunberg Golden Ring barberry shrub is largely not susceptible to fungal diseases, but can sometimes be affected by powdery mildew or rust. To solve these problems, solutions of drugs with a fungicidal spectrum of action are used:
- colloidal sulfur;
- fundazol;
- score;
- arceride;
- Bordeaux mixture.
The main pests that can harm the shrub are the barberry aphid and moth butterfly. To combat them, it is necessary to carry out leaf treatment with acaricide-insecticide preparations:
- Decis-pro;
- Kinmix;
- Carbfos;
- Metaphos;
- Fitoverm.
Conclusion
Barberry Thunberg Golden Ring is able to bring bright colors to the backyard, thanks to its excellent decorative properties. But it would also be useful to mention the possibility of fruiting this ornamental shrub. The minimum follow-up care for the Thunberg Golden Ring barberry should be the deciding factor when buying a seedling.
