Rose Glow Barberry
Berberis thunbergii ‘Rose Glow’

Japanese barberries may be the most versatile of all landscape plants, at home in the garden, in hedges, against a foundation, as a barrier or as a dense shrubby groundcover for large areas. They are compact shrubs that grow with an attractive branching habit. Their smaller spatula-shaped leaves are distinctive, they have very showy red fruits which hang from the delicate branches, and almost all varieties have brilliant fall colors that set the standard for autumn landscape shrubs. In short, they have something to offer in every season.

While the list of landscape platitudes owed to barberries is extensive, one of their most stunning attributes by far is the amazing diversity of foliage colors. Japanese barberries come in varieties with foliage colors ranging from crimson, burgundy and deep purple to soft yellow, bright gold and even orange, besides more than one distinctive shade of green. The colors develop in spring and hold extremely well right through to fall, when they are replaced by even more shocking fall variations before the shrubs finally retire for the winter.

As if that curriculum vitae wasn’t the envy of all other landscape shrubs, along comes the super-variety ‘Rose Glow’, a shocking introduction from Holland. Not only does this variety have rich dark purple foliage all season long, but the new foliage is variegated in a mottled pattern of creamy white and pastel pink. The combination is nothing short of incredible and is almost as visually potent as the flowering performance of the finest roses. Add this to its scalding hot red fall color, brilliant red berries, restrained habit and fine branching, and you have one of the showiest landscape shrubs available!

Barberries are remarkably easy to grow, tolerating almost any soil except those that are excessively wet. Rose Glow does pretty well anything that the average barberry can do in the landscape, but is most effective when used as a color specimen in the garden for its incredible foliage, either as a solitary or in groupings of 3. All barberries have razor-sharp spines, and Rose Glow is no exception - be very careful when planting, pruning or maintaining this shrub because these needle-like thorns can really hurt!

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