Barberry(green)

Barberry

May 26, 2019

I got a message about a few barberries and a few hawthorns, I was after the hawthorns,which I believed she may have mixed up for a batch of smaller barberries,  I was a little disappointed, but the people were nice to chat with and this guy looked like the easiest to dig.  The soil was loose clay with mixed in landscaping rock.  The pick made easy work of it, took about 15 minutes at a real leisurely pace. 

I ended up using a strap to consolidate the spreading branches, so the digging was easy and I did not have to cut anything back onsite.  The root ball was pretty compact, but not much in the way of fine feeder roots. 

I had some thinning out to do.  Once I removed the crowded areas of crossing  and redundant or upward growth, I was able to see where I was going with the design.  Now, I had to think about which trunks would stay and which would go.

Below are the roots after I had used the root hook and occasional rinsing of the roots to remove the soil.  I cut back the thicker roots and tried to leave what fine roots there were.

The material was interesting to work on, and not too thorny.  There were five or six trunks, but some were crossing, and two of the heaviest trunks were too close to the other visually and one had to go.  I kept the one with the better movement and placement.  Pictured on the right side of the second image below. 

I decided to plant it leaning back, away from the viewer.   I also like the visual movement of the trunks that are spread apart and then come back together.  I left some stump on the major trunk I cut for future carving options.

I thinned out the foliage a bit to clean up the profile, leaving some leaves for energy, but hopefully enough to be sustained by the roots.  I potted it deep this time make sure the marginal root mass was well covered and would have the best chance for survival.  During the next re-pot, I will expose it more so it appears more as a clump than a forest. 

End of July

I removed all the unnecessary shoots that were volunteering all over the trunk.  the bulk of the lower growth was on the central 4th trunk that I had planned on carving.  I initially wired it but was not happy with where it was going, so I took them off.  Other branches were thin, but I wired them anyway since this species is know to have branches that become brittle quickly.  I did a few tie-downs as well.  

Before

After

Spring2020

Tree2