Japanese Barberry 'Lutin Rouge'

Japanese Barberry 'Lutin Rouge' (Berberis thunbergii 'Lutin Rouge') is a little red cushion for the garden. The young leaves flare bright red, darken with age to a deep wine-purple, and pick up orange tones in autumn.

This is a dwarf: up to 0.5 m tall and 0.5-1 m wide, so it will never swamp a planting the way tall purple barberries do. Use it in low edgings, rockeries, containers and on the patio, next to conifers and grasses. The colour holds only in sun: in shade the leaves turn green. No shaping is needed, the bush keeps its form on its own.

Key characteristics:

• What makes it special: Thorny shoots keep deer and hares well away from the bush, and in autumn flashes of orange and red run through the wine-red foliage.
• Dimensions: Height 0.1-0.5 m, spread 0.5-1 m - it reaches this size in 2-5 years.
• Hardiness: It overwinters without cover, holding frosts down to -30 °C (USDA zone 4b).
• Flowering: In April-May the shoots are covered with pale yellow flowers gathered in axillary clusters.
• Light: Plant in full sun or partial shade, but the red foliage colour holds only in the sun - in shade it turns green.
• Soil: It happily takes any well-drained soil - chalk, clay, loam or sand. The one thing it dislikes is waterlogging.
• Watering: Watering is moderate, from dry to medium: once established the shrub copes well with drought.
• Care: It asks for almost nothing: shorten the shoots right after flowering if needed (RHS pruning group 2).
• Landscape use: Lovely in city and courtyard gardens, cottage gardens, on patios and in containers, in flower borders and wildlife gardens.
• Origin: A French-bred cultivar from Pepinieres JP Hennebelle, awarded a bronze medal at the Plantarium show in 2014.