Garden Centre

Monday, December 17, 2007

Winter colour, and flavour

I love this plant – I grew it from seed, from seeds, actually given to me by another gardener who snipped a bit of her berberis, complete with berries, for me to carry home and plant the berries ‘in the green’ which I did. It is, in truth, almost impossible NOT to grow berberis (traditional name barberry) from seed, but the variability of the plant is very great and you need to see the parent plant to get some idea what yours might end up as: some are green and some are purple, some berry very heavily and others, like this one, go in for fiery winter colour before the leaves drop. They are all incredibly spiny.

I wanted this one because of its autumn colour, which is just like a bonfire on these very cold December evenings, and it hasn’t disappointed me. In three years from seed, it’s made a substantially spiky bush and the birds have discovered it as a good source of winter food. There are two reasons for this:

1 – they enjoy the tangy fruits which are a good source of winter vitamins. One can, it is claimed, harvest them, although one would have to be the most committed masochist ever, I believe!
2 – because even the most determined cat or fox will think twice about tackling berberis, I use my bayberry shrubs as holders for fat balls that the birds can peck from in complete confidence that no predator is going to get them out of that lethal thicket of needle-sharp spines.

Labels: berberis, bird food, winter colour

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:13 AM

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