Japanese Barberry 'Kobold'

Japanese Barberry 'Kobold' (Berberis thunbergii 'Kobold') is a green cushion that the shrub shapes on its own, without clipping. The leaves are bright green in spring, glossy dark green in summer, and in autumn they lighten to yellow with a reddish flush, with glossy red berries holding on against them.

This is a plant for low edging, knee-high clipped hedges, rock gardens, patios and containers. A mature clump keeps within 0.45-0.6 m in height and width, so unlike the purple cultivars of the species it stays green, lower and tidier with no shaping at all.

Key characteristics:

• What makes it special: A rarity among barberries: 'Kobold' is sterile, sets no seed and never sows itself around the garden.
• Dimensions: At 10 years it is 0.45-0.6 m high and just as wide.
• Hardiness: It takes down to -34 °C (USDA zone 4).
• Flowering: From March to May the shrub is covered with small but charming pale yellow bell-shaped flowers.
• Light: It enjoys full sun or partial shade, and flowers and fruits more freely in open sun.
• Soil: It takes chalk, clay, loam or sand of any pH - the one thing it needs is good drainage.
• Watering: Watering dry to medium: established bushes take heat and drought in their stride.
• Care: It hardly needs pruning: the bush holds its shape itself, and can be clipped after flowering if wanted.
• Landscape use: A border and low hedge, a rockery, a patio, a container, coastal and urban gardens.
• Origin: The cultivar was introduced to the trade by the Dutch nursery Van Klavern of Boskoop around 1960.