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Barberry Orange Rocket (Berberis thunbergii Orange Rocket) is a bright representative of the barberry family. The uniqueness of this variety lies in the color of foliage and shoots. Young plants have bright orange foliage that turns deep red as it grows. Landscape designers are happy to use it in the preparation of plant compositions, the design of park and garden spaces.
Description Orange Rocket barberry
Barberry Orange Rocket in nature lives in the mountains of Tibet and on the gentle slopes of China. Barberry appeared in Our Country in the middle of the 19th century. With its decorative properties, it has earned the recognition of gardeners. The color of new shoots is yellow-orange with a pink tinge.
Barberry Thunberg Orange Rocket is a deciduous shrub that grows rather slowly. Shoots are vertical, elastic, with thorns.
The shape of the crown resembles a column up to 1,0-1,2 m high, 0,4 m wide.
The leaves are medium in size, smooth, oval in shape. The color of the leaves changes with the growth of the plant: starting with green, continuing with yellowish and orange flowers, burgundy shades appear in autumn.
The flowers are small, yellow with a reddish tinge, collected in small inflorescences. Flowering should be expected in late May or early June.
Red elliptical fruits appear in late August or early September. For humans, they are inedible, but perfectly eaten by birds.
The root system is branched. Barberry Orange Rocket is undemanding to soil fertility. In addition, it is photophilous, frost-resistant, grows well in urban conditions.
Variety of barberry Rosie Rocket
Barberry Rosie Rocket is a new decorative form. The shoots grow vertically in height up to 1,3 m and in width up to 0,6 m. The bark of young shoots has a red tint, and lignified ones – the usual brown color.
The oval leaves change color from red in spring to burgundy with white-pink stains in summer, turning orange in autumn.
Rosie Rocket blooms in late spring with pale yellow flowers collected in small inflorescences.
Red fruits-berries ripen in early September and adorn the bush all winter. The fruits are not edible.
Thanks to a well-developed root system, barberry is used to strengthen ravines, slopes and banks.
Rosie Rocket is used for making group and mixed plantings, for planting in borders, for creating hedges. It tolerates sanitary and rejuvenating pruning well.
In cold regions, the barberry Rosie Rocket sheds its leaves during the cold period, and in the southern regions the leaves remain on the bushes.
Barberry Orange Rocket in landscape design
Landscape designers and amateur gardeners widely use Orange Rocket as:
- solitary plantings;
- hedges;
- accent in alpine slides, rockeries;
- edging for flower beds and plant, shrub groups;
- borders;
- companions of coniferous and herbaceous plants;
The variety cannot be planted in close proximity to cherries, acacia, elderberry and hazel. The root system and falling leaves of these trees slow down the development of the barberry.
The strong aroma during flowering Orange Rocket attracts annoying insects, so it is not planted near a residential building.
Planting and caring for barberry Orange Rocket
The unpretentiousness of cultivation is a huge plus for the Orange Rocket barberry. The variety loves sunny, open places, but grows well in partial shade. Shade-growing shrubs have green foliage.
Orange Rocket can grow on drained soils of any acidity. It tolerates heat and lack of watering.
Seedling and planting preparation
The site for planting barberry should be chosen with good illumination. If a group planting of plants of different heights is planned, the placement of seedlings in relation to the sun should be taken into account. Closer to the sunny side, low-growing crops are planted, then medium-sized ones, and at the very end, tall and large ones. Such placement will maximize the access of plants to the sun.
In order for the plant to develop harmoniously, it is necessary to prepare the soil. Orange Rocket grows well on loose, moist, sandy and loamy soils. The main thing is that the acidity of the soil should be from slightly acidic to slightly alkaline. Acidic soil needs to be limed. To do this, before planting the barberry, slaked lime is introduced into the planting hole. In addition to lime, you can add humus, wood ash and superphosphate in the proportion:
- 400 g of slaked lime or 500 g of dolomite flour;
- from 8 to 10 kg of humus;
- 200 g of ash;
- 100 g superphosphate.
It is convenient to use Orange Rocket barberry seedlings with a closed root system for planting. Such a plant can be planted at any time of the growing season. A plant with an open root system takes root better in the spring, before the buds begin to wake up. If the seedling is in the phase of active vegetation, then it should be transplanted into open ground in the fall.
Rules of landing
2-3 weeks before planting, it is necessary to prepare holes for seedlings. If you plant a hedge, it is more convenient to dig a trench. A layer of sand is poured at the bottom of the trench or hole to improve air access to the roots. For single plantings, each bush is planted at a distance of 0,5 m. The depth of the holes should be at least 20-40 cm. The seedling is placed in the hole, sprinkled with nutrient soil, compacted by hand and watered abundantly. Then the trunk circle is mulched with compost or peat. From above, the seedling is cut to 1/3 of the length.
Watering and top dressing
In the first days after planting in the ground, the barberry is watered 2 times a week, not forgetting the inadmissibility of an excess of moisture. During the rainy season, the soil should not be moistened. During the dry season, watering is carried out weekly. The water should be warm, watering is carried out under the root, without getting water on the leaves.
Organic top dressings are introduced under the grown bush, namely chicken manure, compost, infusion of weeds, urea. 2-3 top dressings are needed per season. In spring, sodium is used to fertilize the soil, in summer – phosphates, and in autumn – potassium.
Loosening and weeding of the trunk circle is well reflected in the growth of the shrub.
Trimming
Barberry care is not complete without timely pruning. Sanitary pruning is necessary in early spring before the start of sap flow. With its help, the bush is freed from damaged shoots. The first formative pruning is carried out a year after planting, in the spring. Branches are shortened by half to enhance tillering. The following pruning procedures are carried out 2-3 times a year, in the middle of summer.
Preparation for winter
Barberry Thunberg Orange Rocket is winter-hardy, but in severe winters freezing of annual shoots is possible. To avoid this, at the time of frost, young shoots are covered with burlap. In addition, gardeners recommend mulching the trunk circle with spruce branches, leaf litter or peat for the winter. For good tolerance of frosts, top dressing based on superphosphate is applied in the fall.
Reproduction
Barberry can be propagated in the following ways:
- cuttings;
- grain;
- division of the bush;
- layering.
The most effective way is propagation by layering. In this way, you can get full-fledged seedlings with a developed root system. At the same time, varietal characteristics are preserved.
Fully ripened berries are suitable for seed propagation. Barberry variety Orange Rocket bears fruit only in case of cross-pollination. When planting in autumn, it is permissible not to clean the grains from the pulp, they are immediately planted in open ground on a seedling bed, deepening them by 1 cm. The distance between the grains is kept at least 3 cm. The seedling grows in the garden for several years, then it is transplanted to a permanent place.
When spring sowing grains, stratification is necessary for up to 6 months at a temperature of 0-4 ° C. Seed germination is about 100%.
Diseases and pests
Barberry aphid causes great damage to the Thunberg barberry Orange Rocket, which infects foliage and young shoots. An effective means of combating it is a solution based on green soap (300 g / 10 l of water) or an infusion of tobacco dust (0,5 kg / 10 l of boiling water / 200 g of green soap).
Flower moth destroys fruits. For the fight, treatment with decis according to the instructions is effective.
Powdery mildew, covering leaves, shoots and berries with white powdery spots, gradually kills the plant. It is necessary to fight the disease with sulfur-containing preparations, such as colloidal sulfur, sulfur-lime mixture, 1st time – at the stage of leaf blooming, then every 15-20 days.
Severely affected stems and leaves are cut and burned.
Leaf spots appear on the leaves with spots of various shapes and colors. The leaves dry up and fall off. Shoots do not ripen, which leads to freezing in winter. They are treated with copper-containing preparations before and after flowering.
The withering of the barberry begins with the withering of the leaves and the drying of the shoots, first on part of the plant, gradually spreading to the entire bush. You can stop the infection by pruning the affected shoots.
The plant may be attacked by insect pests:
- barberry sawfly – destroys the green mass of culture;
- flower moth – destroys the fruits;
- barberry aphid – destroys leaves, young shoots.
They fight the sawfly and the moth with a 3% solution of chlorophos. Get rid of aphids using a soapy solution.
Reviews about barberry Orange Rocket
Conclusion
Barberry Orange Rocket is actively used to create an attractive landscape design, even in regions of risky farming. In order for the barberry planting to please the owner for a long time, it is necessary to carry out the pruning procedure in time and not neglect the prevention of diseases. Barberry bushes are unpretentious, decorative.
