Green Barberry Hedge Plants

Berberis Thunbergii: Green Japanese Barberry Hedging Plants

Berberis thunbergii is the green variety of Japanese Barberry. It's ideal as an intruder-proof hedge of up to 2-3m high, with its vandal-proof, vicious spines. It also makes a good specimen shrub with its springy, arching stems, growing unpruned to 2-3m high.

In spring, it bears small, fragrant cup-shaped yellow flowers and red, inedible berries in summer. The small green leaves are deciduous, providing a fabulous autumn display of red, orange and pale purple.

The dense growth is an absolute haven for wildlife, providing excellent nesting sites for garden birds.

View our other varieties of berberis hedging or see our full range of hedging plants.

Delivery season: Berberis thunbergii is delivered bareroot during winter (November-March) depending on the weather and pot-grown year-round. Bareroot Barberry bushes are cheaper than pot-grown plants. Pot grown shrubs are available in the largest sizes.

Choosing a size: When you are ordering Berberis thunbergii for a hedge, we recommend that you use 40/60cm high plants. They are cheaper, easier to handle and will establish well in poor conditions. Use the 60/80cm tall plants if you want a mature hedge quickly, for topiary or as instant impact as a specimen shrub. All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots or pots aren't measured).

Features

• Type: Hedging or specimen shrub
• Site: Sun/partial shade
• Area: Coastal, Exposed & Windy
• Soil: Any well drained
• Leaf Colour: Green
• Leaf Type: Deciduous
• Flower/fruit Colour: Yellow flowers, red berries
• Special features: Autumn colour, berries, wildlife
• Awards: RHS Perfect for Pollinators

Growing Green Japanese Barberry

Barberries will grow well in sun or partial shade but you'll get the best flowers and berries in the sunniest spot. They're excellent for exposed or seaside gardens with half-decent soil, as they will tolerate poor weather and salt-laden winds. They don't like a waterlogged site or sandy soil that is prone to drought.

Spacing a Green Barberry hedge: Plant at 3 plants per metre, 33cms apart.

Good in Your Garden

This Barberry is primarily thought of as a hedging plant but to really brighten up your boundaries, mix it with the purple Barberry, Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea for an extra dimension of colour.

If you're using it as a specimen plant, give it room to breathe so the arching stems can be fully appreciated. Plant it in front of evergreens, such as holly or Pyracantha, to show off its autumn foliage and give your garden some interest when the leaves have dropped.

Underplant bushes or hedges with late-flowering daffodils to pick up the colour in the small yellow flowers.

It is also ideal in a wildlife garden, especially if plants are grown as a hedge. The stems are incredibly dense, making a safe habitat for small birds such as sparrows, blackbirds, dunnocks and robins, especially those that nest near the ground.

Did You Know?

A Japanese native, barberries have become widely naturalised in China and North America, so much so that they are regarded as invasive in the Great Lakes and North East of the USA. The spines are actually highly modified leaves, rather than true thorns. In the past, it was used to make dye.

This species was introduced to Europe from Japan in the 1860's. It is named after Karl Peter von Thunberg, one of the "apostles of Carl Linnaeus", who first described it around 1784.

It is one of those plants that we consider as having an honourary RHS Award of Garden Merit, in that it doesn't hold one itself, but several of its cultivars do.

Flowers & Bees: With profuse flowers from April into June in a good year, the RHS recommends this plant for supporting bees and other pollinators.