BARBERRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1930, Page 18

BARBERRIES.

To-day we have our rose, garden, azalea garden, bamboo garden and rhododendron dell. .Who will be bold enough to deny the possibilities and beauties of the barberry garden of the future ? It will be a place of interest and attraction throughout the year. Not only are barberries ornamental in foliage, flower and fruit, but. many have georgeous autumnal leaf tints, while some are valuable evergreens. In others .the leafless branches claim attention by reason of their colour and spines. The introduction of many new species from China during the last thirty years has more than trebled the value of the barberries in the garden, their most important feature- being the luxuriance and beauty of a large number ,in autumn and . early winter. One may easily place the barberries among the easiest of hardy shrubs to cultivate in the. generality of soils. / The majority of deciduous species, having an abundance of fibrous roots, are easy to transplant during winter' when the weather is favourable and the ground in good, condition for digging. The evergreen species'-are best planted in autumn or late spring. Barberries are by no means gross feeders; in fact, it is surprising how many of them thrive. on gravelly slopes and steep banks where it is not possible to do much soil preparation. In these cases a spring mulch of farmyard manure is worth considering. The least satisfactory soil to deal with is that which is heavy and ill-drained. A few cart loads of gravel, broken bricks and mortar rubble freely worked in will do much ,to transform heavy ground ■ into a Gerberis-growing fioil. As a general rule it is a mtetake to crowd barberries when planting. So many of them have • a distinctive habit of growth which gives them a beauty all their own, but- which is easily destroyed, or, at any rate, largely destroyed, by close . planting. To bring out to the full the ornamental characters of the family open and sunny positions must be the rule. There are exceptions, these being generally found among the evergreens. The Mahonia or Oregon Grage (B Aquifolium) is the best evergreen shrub to clothe - the ground beneath deciduous trees. The fact that it has been possible successfully to introduce and speedily to popularise the Chinese barberries 's abundant evidence of the ease with which they are. raised from seeds. Were further corroboration required we have it in. the wealth of hybrids, raised through the chance cross pollination' of the best fruiting Chinese barberries. Taking a broad view of the barberry family we find them possessing a distinct value for general planting in the pleasure grounds, shrubbery border and the open woodland. A number give glorious masses in flower or fruit, when planted in wide stretches, 1 while others claim distinction as lawn specimens.