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Barberry Orange Rocket (Berberis thunbergii Orange Rocket) is a prominent representative of the barberry family. The uniqueness of this variety lies in the color of the foliage and shoots. Young plants have bright orange foliage that turns dark red as it grows. Landscape designers are happy to use it when creating plant compositions and designing parks and garden spaces.
Description of barberry Orange Rocket
Barberry Orange Rocket naturally lives in the mountains of Tibet and on the gentle slopes of China. Barberry appeared in Russia in the mid-19th century. It has earned recognition from Russian gardeners for its decorative properties. The color of new shoots is yellow-orange with a pink tint.
Barberry Thunberg Orange Rocket is a deciduous shrub that grows quite slowly. The shoots are vertical, elastic, with thorns.
The shape of the crown resembles a column up to 1.0-1.2 m high and 0.4 m wide.
The leaves are medium in size, smooth, oval in shape.The color of the leaves changes as the plant grows: starting with green, continuing with yellowish and orange flowers, burgundy shades appear in the fall.
The flowers are small, yellow with a reddish tint, collected in small inflorescences. Flowering should be expected in late May or early June.
Red, elliptical-shaped fruits appear in late August or early September. They are inedible for humans, but are perfectly eaten by birds.
The root system is branched. Orange Rocket barberry is undemanding when it comes to soil fertility. In addition, it is light-loving, frost-resistant, and grows well in urban conditions.
Barberry variety Rosie Rocket
Barberry Rosie Rocket is a new decorative form. The shoots grow vertically up to 1.3 m in height and up to 0.6 m in width. The bark of young shoots has a red tint, while lignified shoots have the usual brown color.
The oval leaves, which change color from red in spring to burgundy with white and pink streaks in summer, turn orange in autumn.
Rosie Rocket blooms in late spring with soft yellow flowers collected in small inflorescences.
Red fruits and berries ripen in early September and decorate the bush all winter. The fruits are not suitable for food.
Thanks to its well-developed root system, barberry is used to strengthen ravines, slopes and banks.
Rosie Rocket is used for group and mixed plantings, for planting in borders, and for creating hedges. Tolerates sanitary and anti-aging pruning well.
In cold regions, the Rosie Rocket barberry 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:
- tapeworm plantings;
- hedges;
- accent in alpine slides, rockeries;
- edging for flower beds and plant and shrub groups;
- curbs;
- companions of coniferous and herbaceous plants;
The variety cannot be planted in close proximity to cherries, acacias, elderberries and hazels. The root system and falling foliage of these trees slow down the development of barberry.
The strong aroma during flowering of Orange Rocket attracts annoying insects, so it is not planted near a residential building.
Planting and caring for barberry Orange Rocket
Unpretentiousness of cultivation is a huge advantage of Orange Rocket barberry. The variety loves sunny, open places, but also grows well in partial shade. Bushes growing in the shade have green foliage.
Orange Rocket can grow in well-drained soils of any acidity. Tolerates heat and lack of watering well.
Preparing seedlings and planting area
A site for planting barberry should be chosen with good lighting. If you are planning a group planting of plants of different heights, you should consider the placement of seedlings in relation to the sun. Low-growing crops are planted closer to the sunny side, then medium-growing ones, and at the very end - tall and large ones. This placement will provide the plants with maximum access to the sun.
In order for the plant to develop harmoniously, it is necessary to prepare the soil. Orange Rocket grows well in loose, moist, sandy and loamy soils. The main thing is that the acidity of the soil is from slightly acidic to slightly alkaline. Acidic soil needs to be limed. To do this, before planting the barberry, slaked lime is added to the planting hole.In addition to lime, you can add humus, wood ash and superphosphate in the following proportions:
- 400 g slaked lime or 500 g 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. This plant can be planted at any time during the growing season. A plant with an open root system takes root better in the spring, before the buds begin to emerge. If the seedling is in the active growing season, then it should be transplanted into open ground in the fall.
Landing rules
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 holes 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 nutritious soil, compacted by hand and watered abundantly. Then the tree trunk circle is mulched with compost or peat. The top of the seedling is cut to 1/3 of its length.
Watering and fertilizing
In the first days after planting in the ground, barberry is watered 2 times a week, not forgetting about the inadmissibility of excess 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 should be done at the root, without getting water on the leaves.
Organic fertilizers are applied to the grown bush, namely chicken manure, compost, weed infusion, and urea. 2-3 feedings 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 tree trunk circle has a good effect on the growth of the bush.
Trimming
Caring for barberry is not complete without timely pruning. Sanitary pruning is necessary in early spring before sap flow begins. With its help, the bush is freed from damaged shoots. The first formative pruning is carried out a year after planting, in the spring. The branches are shortened by half to enhance tillering. The following pruning procedures are carried out 2-3 times a year, in mid-summer.
Preparing for winter
Barberry Thunberg Orange Rocket is winter-hardy, but in severe winters, annual shoots may freeze. To avoid this, at the time of frost, young shoots are covered with burlap. In addition, gardeners recommend mulching the tree trunk circle with spruce branches, leaf litter or peat for the winter. To ensure good frost tolerance, superphosphate-based fertilizing is applied in the fall.
Reproduction
You can propagate barberry in the following ways:
- cuttings;
- grain;
- dividing the bush;
- layering.
The most effective way is propagation by layering. This method allows you to obtain full-fledged seedlings with a developed root system. At the same time, varietal characteristics are preserved.
Fully ripe berries are suitable for seed propagation. The barberry variety Orange Rocket bears fruit only in case of cross-pollination. When planting in the fall, it is permissible not to clear the grains of pulp; they are immediately planted in open ground on a seedling bed, deepening them 1 cm into the bed. The distance between the grains is maintained at least 3 cm. The seedling grows in the garden bed for several years, then it is transplanted to a permanent place.
When sowing grains in spring, stratification is required for up to 6 months at a temperature of 0-4 °C. Seed germination is about 100%.
Diseases and pests
Great damage is caused to the Thunberg barberry Orange Rocket by the barberry aphid, which attacks 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).
The flower moth destroys the fruits. For control, treatment with decis according to the instructions is effective.
Powdery mildew, which covers leaves, shoots and berries with white powdery spots, gradually kills the plant. You need to fight the disease with sulfur-containing drugs, such as colloidal sulfur, sulfur-lime mixture, 1st time - at the stage of leaf blossoming, then every 15-20 days.
Severely affected stems and leaves are cut out and burned.
Leaf spots appear on the leaves as spots of varying shapes and colors. The leaves dry out and fall off. The shoots do not ripen, which leads to freezing in winter. Treat with copper-containing preparations before and after flowering.
Wilting of barberry begins with withering of leaves and drying out of shoots, first on parts 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 the crop;
- flower moth – destroys fruits;
- barberry aphid – destroys leaves and young shoots.
Sawfly and moth are combated with a 3% chlorophos solution. Aphids are gotten rid of by using a soap solution.
Reviews of barberry Orange Rocket
Conclusion
Barberry Orange Rocket is actively used to create attractive landscape design even in regions of risky farming. In order for barberry planting to please the owner for a long time, it is necessary to carry out the pruning procedure on time and not neglect disease prevention. Barberry bushes are unpretentious and decorative.
