Orange Rocket Barberry

15 years ago

Have a couple of Weigela Fine Wine under the bay window and to be honest, they are somewhat boring. Flowering is nice but the foliage just seems a dull color. Recently saw the Orange rocket barberry at the nursery and considering these as a replacement. I think these are relatively new and have really nice foliage color. See link below. Wonder if anyone has tried these and has any feedback.

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange rocket Barberry

Featured Answer

DonSol

15 years ago

Here's the grower's link -

http://www.planthaven.com/treevarieties2.html

Click on "Berberis Orange Rocket" and then click on "More information".

If this is what you like and if it works with your color scheme then you should just go ahead and try it. If you read through these message boards you'll usually run across one constant refrain which is "if you don't like it just yank it out and plant something else". It's actually pretty good advice and everyone would be well-served by heeding it. The other two "Rocket" varieties ("Golden" and "Rosy" look pretty cool and I most definitely will be adding a trio of "Rosy Rockets" and I'm considering also adding a trio of "Golden Rockets" because their chartreuse foliage plays off nicely on a burgundy color scheme that I'm working on. Anyway, my advice would be to try the "Orange Rockets" but be aware that they have a pronounced vertical height with a quite narrow spread 51" x 16" so you might want to give some thought to what you might want to plant as companions. The grower lists the color as "coral-orange new foliage aging to mid green" and "coral-orange" is one of those colors that can be difficult to work into a color scheme. I did a search on a "coral" color scheme and the recommended colors are "gold, white, sea green, and turquoise (good luck on that one!)". Best wishes!

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Comments (6)

Conor MacDonald, Rhode Island, z6b
11 years ago
I'm considering these for a very narrow partition hedge, I'm wondering if alternating it with a deep green sky pencil Japanese holly would make for nice contrast. I wonder what snowfall does for the Barberry rockets--i know the holly is best tied together to prevent breaking.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
i hate barberry ... with the passion of a million burning suns ...

dad planted one on the corner of the garage.. 6 feet from my basketball hoop ... what was that all about.. a little ball playing and blood letting.. all in one ... and that was 40 odd years ago ....

the only thing worse ... was pruning.. or shearing time ... and cleaning up the cuttings ...

i would thing long and hard about planting a rather fast grower like this... in what the last poster calls ... 'a very narrow partition hedge'

ken
wisconsitom
11 years ago
On the invasives list in some states.......if that matters to you. For my part, I had never seen Japanese barberry escaped into the wild here in Wisconsin. Then I was introduced to a wildly-proliferating patch in a woods in our beautiful and unique Door County. After seeing that, I can't recommend the plant at a ll anymore. Not to mention, those "attributes" Ken mentions are for real. Finally, depending on the "urban-ness" of your situation, barberries are pretty much the ultimate living garbage collection system. Every piece of paper, plastic shopping bag, candy wrapper, will be flapping in the wind every time you look.

+oM
whaas_5a
11 years ago
One of my favorite barberries. It does NOT stay as narrow/upright as it ages. Mine are roughly 3' x 2'

Forgive my spelling but Hedmone Pillar stays narrow and upright.
PRO
Select Landscapes of Iowa
11 years ago
Same here in Iowa- almost every woodland has a barberry representative now. Nothing worse than doing all the spring pruning and getting jabbed over and over by the thorns. And they do catch every leaf. My experience with the Rockets has been that heavy snow loads will tip them over, necessitating a good trim every spring to encourage vigorous re-growth. While I do like the color, I also recommend going for something else.