Thunberg's Barberry 'Green Carpet'

Thunberg's Barberry 'Green Carpet' – a cultivar of Thunberg's barberry. The cultivar was obtained in the Netherlands in 1965.

It is a semi-evergreen shrub with a cushion-shaped, dense, broad, flattened crown. It reaches 1 m in height and 1.5-2 m in width. The plant is slow-growing. Branches are brown-black, covered with three-part spines, spreading and pendulous.

Leaves round or broadly elliptic, small, up to 2 cm long, entire, glossy, light green in summer, in autumn acquiring orange-yellow or scarlet-red tones.

Flowers bloom in late May – early June. Flowers solitary or in inflorescences of 2-5, yellow, red on the outside, numerous, located along the entire length of the shoot.

Fruits numerous, elongated, up to 1 cm in diameter, glossy, pink or red in color. They ripen in September and remain on the bushes for a long time, decorating the shrub after leaf fall for almost the entire winter.

Hardiness zone: 5a-8b (-28.8 °C). The tips of one-year shoots may freeze in cold winters.

Location: light-loving but tolerates partial shade. Heat-tolerant, winter-hardy, drought- and wind-resistant. Does not tolerate prolonged waterlogging. Not demanding to soil, grows well on alkaline soil, optimal pH 6.0 - 7.5. Tolerates urban conditions well.

Planting: planting is best carried out in spring or autumn. If acidity is above pH 7, it is recommended to lime the soil. Planting mix: peat, topsoil, humus, 400 g of slaked lime (if pH>7) and 200 g of wood ash. Planting hole size: 40x40 cm. For solitary planting, the distance between plants should be 1.5-2 m. For creating a hedge, prepare a trench and place plants at a rate of 2 bushes per 1 linear meter.

Care: care consists of loosening the root circles, but not deeply, and mulching. Watering is recommended at least once a week with 2-3 buckets per plant. In spring, one year after planting, nitrogen-containing fertilizers can be applied. Subsequently, nitrogen feeding is carried out no sooner than every 3-4 years. In the first 2-3 years it needs sheltering with conifer boughs.

Pruning: requires pruning of undeveloped shoots. Thinning is carried out in spring. For creating hedges, pruning is done in the 2nd year after planting, cutting off 1/2-2/3 of the aboveground part. After that pruning is carried out twice a year – in early June and in early August.

Propagation: by seeds and vegetatively.

Diseases: bacterial canker, powdery mildew, septoria leaf spot, infectious twig dieback, phyllosticta leaf spot, leaf spot, rust fungus Puccinia graminis.

Pests: barberry aphid, barberry sawfly, barberry fruit moth, leaf-eating insects.

Uses: used as a specimen on lawns, in mixed plantings with perennials and group plantings, in tree-shrub compositions, as underplanting for tall shrubs, in borders and freely growing hedges.