New Barberry

Joanie

Here is a new barberry (berberis thunbergii red dwarf) that was a ten dollar nursery find yesterday. He just had such a nice little trunk! And a nice vigorous tree, with lots of thorns. About 8" tall, after trimming.

Am I going in the right direction with this style? Any suggestions would be welcome, and virts would make my day!!

Joanie

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Joanie

And it helps to attach the photo, doesn't it? Sheesh...

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bonsai_audge

This is drastic, but we're all patient people, right? ... Right?

-Audric

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Larry

Nice find Joanie, is this a deciduous one with clear red berries? Did you notice when pruning it it had yellow sap-thats fun when you first see it!
(Same family as mahonia, a real yellow bleeder)

Audge, thats got legs!

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Joanie

I don't know about the berries, they weren't on it yesterday. But it sure does have bright yellow insides! Kinda scared me. Alien tree, alien tree! And the leaves are a neat red purple.

Gulp! Patient is right....your virtual looks like a fat flagpole. Would you do that to encourage more side branches, and then make a short little broomy shape? Or hope to grow more in the upward direction first? Can you draw lines to suggest where you would hope for branches and how you would ideally want them to go? It certainly will be able to bud back at all those little nobby things...are those considered latent buds or dead ones?

Thank you for your ideas!!!!

Joanie

Will_Heath

Joanie, I have experience with Berberis and I love them. I have never seen "yellow sap" but the yellow flesh always has amazed me. The bark and twisted branches make these one of my favorites, I am glad to see someone else showing interest.

They are slow growing plants and next to impossible to wire once the branches are mature, get them while they are young!

Here are a couple I am working with....

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...hlight=berberis
http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...hlight=berberis

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...bargin+barberry

Good luck,

Will

Joanie

Thank you, Will, for the links. Your barberrys are just lovely! Both the contest entry and the clump style. And reading the comments was also useful, as you say, the other pairs of eyes and a different point of view. Do you always stare at your new trees for weeks, and think so hard? I can hardly wait two days if I think a tree is healthy enough to dive into! Ohhhh I have a lot to learn.

("Back away from the scissors and no one gets hurt")

Now, your pictures show the barberrys with a lot of green foliage as well as the red. Are yours also "Crimson Dwarf" or a different cultivar? Does the foliage turn green as it ages? How do you handle the little nubbies on the trunk and branches....scrape them off or consider them decorative? They come off readily. The bark on your contest entry was really awesome! How does it look now? Did it survive well?

Thank you for your time!
Joanie

Will_Heath

Joanie,

Of all the Bereris, I perfer the Crimson Pygmy Barberry, "Berberis Thumbergi Atropurpurea 'Nana'"

The foliage is green when it is new growth and if grown in full sun, turns to a beautiful Crimson red.

By the nubbies I take it you mean the small swirls of growth. I have left these on as they will elongate into branches when you prune back they tips, giving you the ramification these plants need.

Thank you for the kind words. The two that I showed here are both doing well and are starting to bud out. I will update the ohotos when the foliage is ready.

Good luck and please keep me updated.

Will

Larry

Nice barberries WillA must try group of plants!
I'm curios what your latin quote means-something about life?

"Brevior saltare cum deformibus mulieribus est vita"
(Brief/short................................is life?)

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