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An unusual color in combination with contrasting bunches of flowers make the Ottawa barberry among modern designers one of the favorite elements for landscape design. The shrub, unpretentious to the conditions of reproduction and existence, can be grown by every amateur gardener who wishes to have it on his site.
Description of Ottawa barberry
The purple-red crown of the Ottawa barberry shrub stands out favorably against the background of any other vegetation. The culture is a hybrid obtained from 2 barberries: Thunberg and common. The external form is more reminiscent of the Thunberg variety, and the color of the leaves is inherited from the common barberry. Therefore, in the description and in the photo of the Ottawa barberry, there are signs of both parents:
- growth from 2 m to 3 m, crown diameter - up to 2.5 m;
- the crown is formed by spreading arcuate branches;
- the main stems grow vertically, the lateral ones hang down in an arc;
- spines are rare, up to 1.5 cm in length;
- leaves are purple-red, alternately located, elongated, up to 4-5 cm, brighten by autumn, acquiring orange shades;
- flowers are small, yellow with a red spot, collected in a cluster of several pieces, bloom in May, have a strong, pleasant aroma;
- berries are large, numerous, bright red, hanging on the branches until December;
- the root system is branched, superficial, transplant well;
- the growth is 30-35 cm per year.
The unusual purple-red color of the leaves is not affected by the location of the shrub (sunny side or shady side). However, it is better to plant Ottawa barberry where there is a lot of sun. Bright yellow flowers against a background of red-violet leaves with a bluish bloom are an unusually beautiful decoration for any garden and personal plot.
Ottawa barberry is an excellent honey plant. Bees actively collect nectar from it. There is barberry honey. In addition, edible berries have found their use in cooking for the preparation of jelly, jams, compotes, seasonings. The healing properties of Ottawa barberry are present in all its parts and are used not only in folk medicine, in the form of decoctions and lotions, but also in traditional medicine in the treatment of the kidneys, liver, and gastrointestinal tract organs.
Ottawa barberry in landscape design
The culture adapts well to urban settings. The wide spreading crown and its rare color with bright contrasting colors are those qualities of the Ottawa barberry that designers widely use in landscape design. The shrub creates a color accent, drawing attention to itself. It stands out in single plantings for decorating lawns, personal plots, in tree-shrub compositions, as well as in dense, live and free-growing hedges.
A hedge of the desired shape and constant size can be obtained only 6-8 years after planting the bushes for permanent residence.
Ottawa barberry varieties
Different varieties of Ottawa barberry have a variety of colors. The most popular varieties are Superba, Auricoma and Silver Miles.
Barberry Ottawa Superba
The height of an adult Ottawa barberry Superba can reach 3 m. The crown size is 2.5-3 m in diameter. The leaves are purple-red with a bluish tint, brighten by autumn, including shades of orange. This does not happen with all the leaves of the bush.
The fruits are elongated, ripen in October and hang beautifully from gracefully curved branches. Edible berries taste sour.
For decorative decoration, Superba barberry can be planted singly or form part of a tree and shrub design.
Ottawa barberry Auricoma
The height of the Ottawa barberry Auricoma shrub reaches 2-2.5 m. The leaves are rounded, up to 4-5 cm long, all summer they have a purple-red color, which does not change depending on the season. Shiny, deep red fruits ripen at the end of the 3rd trimester, edible, with a sour taste.
As an ornamental plant, the Ottawa barberry Auricoma is widely used in the design of private territories, parks, borders, creating hedges.
In medicine, all parts of the shrub are used: leaves, fruits, bark, roots. The barberry Auricoma is known for its choleretic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, hemostatic action. A decoction from the root is made for gargling and lotions.
Barberry Ottawa Silver Miles
An adult plant of the Ottawa barberry Silver Miles reaches a height of up to 2 m in 8-10 years. This species is distinguished by the color of the leaves. From a distance, they look dark purple, but upon closer inspection, you can see spots and stripes of various sizes on them pink-gray. It blooms with yellow-red flowers in May, giving a spectacular look to the entire bush.
It is possible to form both a dense fence and a free-growing hedge from the Silver Miles barberry bushes.
Planting and caring for barberry ottawa
When choosing a place for planting Ottawa barberry, preference should be given to the sunny side, although the shrub will grow in partial shade. The more sun, the more magnificent the crown. This culture is not afraid of drafts and wind. However, if the area is exposed to strong winds, it is better to choose a place that is sheltered from blowing.
The Ottawa barberry shrub does not require much care in its care. After planting, it must be watered on time, loosened the soil in the near-trunk circle, apply the necessary fertilizers and carry out preventive spraying for diseases.
Seedling and planting plot preparation
The soil for planting Ottawa barberry can be of any acidity level (optimal - pH 6.0-7.5), but the plant grows better on neutral soil. If the acidity is high, then you need to add lime (300 g per bucket of water) or wood ash to the soil, after digging up the area where the shrub will grow.
The site should be drained, without a close occurrence of groundwater, since the Ottawa barberry shrub does not tolerate waterlogging.
If the seedlings are bought in a container, then before planting they need to be taken out with the ground and watered. After that, you can plant in a prepared hole.
Landing rules
When creating a dense hedge of Ottawa Tunberg barberry, it is recommended to plant 4-5 bushes per 1 m.For a free-growing fence, the bushes should be at a distance of 0.4-0.5 m from each other, with a single planting it is better to maintain a distance between plantings of 1.5 -2 m.
Planting rules are simple and contain the same sequence of actions as when planting many shrubs:
- Dig a hole 50x50x50 cm in size - for a single bush. If you create a hedge, then it is better to immediately make a trench for all the seedlings.
- Put drainage on the bottom, which will be at hand - broken brick, coarse sand, crushed stone, small pebbles. The height of the drainage depends on the flow of groundwater - the deeper they are, the thinner the drainage (10-20 cm).
- Pour the prepared fertile mixture into the pit - turf soil, sand, humus in equal proportions. More land can be added. Drizzle with water.
- Place the prepared seedling vertically in the center of the pit, add the soil mixture to the ground level on the site, tamp, water.
Some time after planting the Ottawa barberry bushes, the earth may sink. It will be necessary to add soil so that the root collar is slightly below the surface of the earth and mulch the root circle with sawdust, tree bark, dry grass, decorative small stones.
Watering and feeding
Barberry is a drought-resistant plant, but it can die from drying out of the soil. You need to water the bushes once a week, a bucket of water per bush. In drought - more often, as the land dries up.
Since fertilizers are applied when planting a bush, they begin to feed the Ottawa barberry with complex fertilizers from 2 years old, before flowering. And then fertilizer is applied once every 3-4 years.
Pruning
Spring sanitary pruning will not interfere with Ottawa barberry bushes. After the last snow melts, you need to cut off all frozen, dried and diseased branches. No pruning is required for free-growing bushes. But when forming a dense hedge, you need to start pruning branches for 2 years and do it 2 times annually: in early June and in August.
Preparing for winter
The Barberry family belongs to winter-hardy plants, but in severe frosts, annual shoots can freeze. They do not require special shelter and perfectly tolerate the winters of central Russia.
However, experienced gardeners recommend covering young plants for the winter with spruce branches or fallen leaves for the first 2-3 years. You can put a burlap on top and tie it with a rope so that the bush does not open up with the wind.
Reproduction
For reproduction of Ottawa barberry, all vegetative methods are used, as well as seeds. Reproduction by cuttings and layering is used more often.
In the northern regions of Russia, sowing with seeds is best done in the spring. In a warmer area, you can sow seeds in the ground in spring and autumn. To do this, proceed as follows:
- Ripe fruits are harvested in autumn.
- Wring out, washed and dried.
- They are planted in prepared soil, deepening by 1/3 of a finger.
- Cover with foil until it snows.
For spring sowing, preliminary stratification is carried out for 3 months at a temperature of about +50FROM.
Reproduction by green cuttings is carried out in the summer. For this, young branches of the current year are used in plants of 3-5 years of age.
Diseases and pests
The Ottawa barberry attracts gardeners with its resistance to fungal diseases and various insect pests. The most common diseases among this variety of barberries are:
- powdery mildew;
- rust;
- withering;
- infectious desiccation.
These diseases are easier to prevent than to cure. If the disease is started, then it will be difficult to fight it, the plant will have to be dug up and burned. Therefore, in the spring, before flowering, for preventive purposes, the bushes are sprayed with appropriate fungicides. Then this is repeated several times throughout the growing season.
Pests such as flower moth, barberry aphid and sawfly should be dealt with as soon as they are found. Currently, there is a whole range of chemicals for the destruction of such insects.
Conclusion
Ottawa barberry with its appearance not only attracts attention, but also makes the site more saturated and lively. It is not difficult to grow it. Unpretentiousness and resistance to living conditions make it a part of the garden in almost any Russian region. You don't need special knowledge for this either. This culture can give not only aesthetic pleasure, but also be beneficial to health.
