Summer. Among the bright green trees, shrubs, and grasses, plants with purple-red and maroon leaves always stand out and attract the eye. Create a one-color garden in purple tones, and there are not enough herbaceous and woody crops.
It is wood in red-leafed gardens that plays the main role, and they perfectly cope with the task, placing accents in plant compositions, making them the necessary contrast.
Even a single bush with red leaves can attract attention: it is impossible to pass by it without noticing it.
Today, the market for planting material is abundant in such forms and varieties, but do not oversaturate the cottage with red-leaved wood.
As a rule, they are “diluted”, adding a contrasting color to plants with variegated or silvery leaves. But most often they are spectacular tapeworms, among which the palm belongs to burberry.
Red-leaved barberry
Spectacular unpretentious favorites of cottages, large or small (depending on the variety). An additional decoration can be considered small yellow flowers collected in small racemes, and bright red or dark purple fruits.
A lot of handsome men in the purple robes from the Barberry thunbergii. It:
- ‘Atropurpurea’ – height and width 1.5-2 m (5-6.5 ft), dark purple leaves;
- ‘Atropurpurea Nana’ — height of 0.4-0.6 m, width of 0.6-0.7 m (1-2 ft), the crown compact, cushion-like, the leaves bright purple, with a length of 1-2 cm (1 inch).;
- ‘Red Chief’ – height and width 1.5-2 m (5-6.5 ft), leaves shiny, lanceolate, 3.5 cm (1.5 inch) long, dark purple;
- ‘Red Pillar’ – 1.5 m high (5 ft), 0.45 m (18 inches) wide, columnar crown, leaves red-purple, below-dark green;
- ‘Bagatelle’ – height 0.3-0.4 m (1-2 ft), width 0.4-0.7 m (1.3-2.2 ft), crown spherical, flat top, leaves bright red, up to 1.5 cm (0.6 inch) long.;
- ‘Golden Ring’ 1.5-2 m (5-6.5 ft) high, 1.5 m (5 ft) wide, purple-red leaves, with a narrow yellow edge and others.
Classic Burgundy garden can be purple cultivars of Barberry vulgaris. It:
- ‘Atropurpurea’ — height to 2.5m (8 ft), the leaves are dark purple;
- ‘Violaceae’ – up to 2 m (6.5 ft), dark purple leaves.
All of them grow quickly, are frost and wind resistant, undemanding to soils, but develop better and look in the open sun (in the shade of greenery), on neutral soils.
Very beautiful varieties with red leaves hybrid B. x ottawensis, which laid in the nature of the genes B. vulgaris. It:
- ‘Auricoma’ – height and width of 2 m (6.5 ft), rounded leaves, bright red, autumn-orange-red;
- ‘Purpurea’ is a very vigorous; height of 2-3 m (6.5-10 ft) and a width of 2-2,5 m (6.5-8 ft), the leaves are rounded, up to 5 cm (2 inches), red-purple, with a bluish tint, in autumn — bright red;
- ‘Silver Mile’ – height and width up to 2.5 m (8 ft), curved shoots horizontally prostrate, light beet leaves, slightly elongated, covered with silver and purple spots of different intensity; some leaves remain monophonic;
- ‘Decora’ is the height of 1.8 m (6 ft), the leaves are bluish-purple and others.
Recently for southern villas popular hybrid evergreen and dry barberries, obtained by crossing B. gagnepainii and B. candidula group B. x hybrid gagnepainii cultivars. These are very spectacular shrubs, but there is not enough frost: the critical winter minimum is -15°C (5°F). In the middle zone, you can try to grow dwarf forms, covering them in winter with spruce branches and snow.
But the beautiful red-leaf forms of Corylus avellana ‘Atropurpurea’ and ‘Red Majestic’ feels great in the middle lane.
They tolerate partial shade well, but their beauty is perfect only in open Sunny places. In the shade, the leaves turn green. They prefer fertile soil, and need watering in hot, dry summers.
In a Sunny place, maroon leaves Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ reach the peak of beauty.
In contrast to the beautiful white hemispherical inflorescences. It is a deciduous shrub about 3 m (10 ft) high, rather unpretentious and plastic: it grows well both on dry and wet soils; it is frost-resistant. In addition to single plantings, they are suitable for creating colorful hedges.
Interesting and reddish Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’.
In an open sunny place, its leaves turn rich cherry, and turn green in the shade. This is a large deciduous shrub up to 3 m (10 ft) high, in severe winters it can freeze, so in the middle zone it does not reach its usual size, remaining as a small Bush.
For contrasting plant compositions small garden suitable Weigela florida ‘Nana Purpurea’.
Against the background of brown-red leaves, pale pink flowers look cute.
It is good on the lawn in solitaire or group planting.
The exquisite decoration of the southern villas will be an evergreen beauty-Photinia × fraseri ‘Red Robin’.
Its red leaves are particularly bright in spring.
Finally a small overview of the red bushes, but it would be incomplete without a mention of red cordyline, which are increasingly planted in the South villas.
This rosette tree looks great not only in single, but also in group plantings.
Continue, and very soon you will get acquainted with red-leaved trees.