Barberry Shohin Clump Progression

[Smoke]

I recently found this in the bargain section of a large nursery. I have never had a barberry and have no idea of it's growth habit. This will be a OJT experience for me, which is the way I like it. Even if someone has experience and chimes in, due to my growing weather that info may be useless. Te plant was marked 20.00 something and was in a five gallon. All the foliage was gone due to lack of water. It was not dried out and the shoots were still very green and it was a short no water experience so I think it was a temporary set back, but in the nursery trade a bush with no leaves and all the others have leaves is a no-sale condition and a loser in the eyes of a nursery. I picked it up for 8.88. The variety is Concorde, a miniature deciduous variety and deep red all year turning flame red in the fall, yellow flowers and edible red fruits.


I pulled it from the can and placed a block in there to elevate the ball above the can and started to expose some base to see what I had. These views are from around the plant.













At this point I started pulling the soil away from the base to see how it emerged from the soil. I can see now that for a interesting clump it will require being planted rather low in the pot. I don't want that much trunk exposed and wish the clump to look more like a clump and not a trunk that just exploded with growth.




All the shoots were cut back for taper and height allowing for ramified growth at the top to finish out below 8 inches. Can't wait for spring to even see if it is still alive!!!

 

[Smoke]

Soil line later

 

[Gary McCarthy]

I like the way you do hard cut backs on a lot of your trees when they're first starting out.

 

[Smoke]

I like the way you do hard cut backs on a lot of your trees when they're first starting out.

Thanks. You have to. Not cutting back is just wasting time. I'm not that old, 64, but I feel the age creeping in and I know that I have about 8 good years before I will have to work from a chair at a table and sell off the larger trees. So I am getting ready by starting much smaller material for later. Cutting back hard is part of that process, and part of the process for anyone wishing to do bonsai.

This thread is one of those.

Juniper styling advice please!

Pretty much hate what I’ve done with this poor sabina. Anyone see any potential or have any ideas where I could go with it?

www.bonsainut.com

This guy has bought a juniper and has started to work the tree in the same condition he bought it in. I always wonder why? Cut that puppy back, juniper, so you can't do what I did with the barberry, but you could reduce those long gangly shoots back by half.

 

[Warpig]

I recently found this in the bargain section of a large nursery. I have never had a barberry and have no idea of it's growth habit. This will be a OJT experience for me, which is the way I like it. Even if someone has experience and chimes in, due to my growing weather that info may be useless. Te plant was marked 20.00 something and was in a five gallon. All the foliage was gone due to lack of water. It was not dried out and the shoots were still very green and it was a short no water experience so I think it was a temporary set back, but in the nursery trade a bush with no leaves and all the others have leaves is a no-sale condition and a loser in the eyes of a nursery. I picked it up for 8.88. The variety is Concorde, a miniature deciduous variety and deep red all year turning flame red in the fall, yellow flowers and edible red fruits.
View attachment 269528

I pulled it from the can and placed a block in there to elevate the ball above the can and started to expose some base to see what I had. These views are from around the plant.

View attachment 269529

View attachment 269530

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View attachment 269533

At this point I started pulling the soil away from the base to see how it emerged from the soil. I can see now that for a interesting clump it will require being planted rather low in the pot. I don't want that much trunk exposed and wish the clump to look more like a clump and not a trunk that just exploded with growth.

View attachment 269534


All the shoots were cut back for taper and height allowing for ramified growth at the top to finish out below 8 inches. Can't wait for spring to even see if it is still alive!!!

View attachment 269535

I have to say that I really appreciate you taking the time to show your progression from nursery stock. It will be nice to see the progress from more a 'common ground' material.

Would you say this time of year matters when doing such a hard pruning?

 

[Colorado]

I’ve always thought barberry somewhat interesting. Nice small leaves and good color. My parents had about a million of these in the landscape growing up.

Guess whose job it always was to trim them? I only did that once without gloves!

How do you approach that situation when the nursery tree is clearly in declining health, but not necessarily marked for reduced price? Just ask if they can discount it?

Looking forward to the progress on this one!

 

[TN_Jim]

My experience with wiring them is akin to the branches of a boxwood. The cambium may not take hard bends on mature branches -instead they seem to rather ditch the mature branch and throw a flush of suckers.

The couple I have experienced this with were Concorde.

 

[Paulpash]

I'll chip in and share my experience with Berberis of which I've had both green and red varieties over the years.

They air layer easily and have a very fibrous root system. This means that they can usually withstand substantial root work to get into a shohin pot. The root and branch cuts are a funky bright yellow colour.

They tend to be multiple budders so you will have to be vigilant and rub out these clusters of buds to just one. Often they will do this at the base of strong branches that have been pruned away.

They are angular growers if you just opt for clip and grow. Left to their own devices, however, they will produce ramrod straight canes. I'd recommend cutting off the thorns if you are going to wire - they hurt like a bitch and at shohin scale you're going to be dreading putting more wire on after you've wired it out once.

In your climate I'd recommend shade cloth and a moisture retentive mix.

They have good Autumn colours (at least here in the UK they do). The red variety tends to go a deeper red before dropping and the green has orange, pink, red and some green (very attractive). The fruit are bright red and in a good scale for shohin.