person will not be tolerated. It can grow in full shade and established woods. It can root where branches touch the ground and where seeds are dropped in place to make… But the sad fact is that today, even here in Connecticut where Japanese Barberry is on the invasive plant list, a first time homeowner and newbie gardener who walks into a local nursery and asks for a shade-tolerant, drought-tolerant, low-maintenance shrub that has to be deer resistant will probably be pointed towards Japanese Barberry. There are so many invasive plants that are bad but nothing smoothers and completely creates monocultures better than English Ivy. Or worse yet, for sale at a local nursery? In forested environments, Japanese barberry grows abundantly in the understory creating dense, thorny thickets. • Mature Japanese barberry is the perfect height for questing adult ticks to attach themselves to deer as they pass by. my life will never be the same. I have seen very few babies sprouting from the parent plants in the landscape, although I have seen a few, but only where a thick layer of decomposing bark surrounds the plants. I believe that more states in the Northeast including Rhode Island should enforce a law making it illegal to possess or purchase this invasive shrub. Is it possible that the same habitat that is friendly to ticks is also friendly to Barberry? Don't knowingly lie about anyone I have a small shrub that fits the description, except that it has no berries. Be Nice. Japanese barberry has small, oval, alternate leaves. I was shown a few different cultivars and told any of them would work well in my garden. Plant scientists should work at developing sterile cultivars. Be Truthful. All plants, leaves on the ground in fall make good places for ticks. Japanese barberry for sure is at the top of my hate list. Japanese barberry is an important winter foraging fruit when many fruits are nowhere to be found. Barberry is a very dense plant due to the multitude of small twigs and branches. my disease is carried by the lone star tick. Read their review of Americas Cardroom at https://legitorscam.net/is-americas-cardroom-legit-or-a-scam/, I had 17 barberry plants in my yard ..all gone but one ..my yard infested and I have the new tick disease ALPHA GAL.. no cure..No one ever told me about this. Almost two decades ago, when I was a first time homeowner and newbie gardener, I actually bought and planted Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii). Second on my list is likely Burning Bush, which while it looks nice and grows well, produces so many offspring that I've seen it covering both sides of some of the rural roads I drive on. You know, the one that makes you cringe when you see it growing in someone’s garden? • Eliminating Japanese Barberry will decrease the number of blacklegged ticks which in turn will significantly reduce the risk of Lyme disease. There are numerous harmful impacts that Japanese barberry has on forested woodlands and meadows. For example, plant oaks or other native trees under the barberry to use its thorns to keep deer from devastating the young trees before they can get above the browse line. Small, yellow flowers are produced during the spring, but are not particularly noticeable since they are under the foliage. While they have been growing for more than 10 years they have shown no sign of spreading. • Dense stands of Japanese barberry provide favorable habitat for all life stages of blacklegged ticks. The fact that this shrub alone could indirectly cause human death and is still available to purchase and plant is preposterous. Japanese barberry is a spiny, deciduous shrub, with arching branches. Threats of harming another What you say about Japanese (or European) Barberry is true. Understand it and use it to help drive the diversity of your propery. Don't Threaten. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. In return, this allows the ticks to cling onto the deer that then transport these ticks to other woodlands and eventually to humans. So I grabbed three purple-leafed shrubs (the exact cultivar long forgotten) and went home and planted them. It's maddening both are still being sold by retailers in CT. That's easy, English Ivy! You can get vitamin C and a slightly fruity flavor in the middle of winter. Leaves: Japanese barberry has small oval to spoon shaped leaves with smooth margins. With a little education, we can help gardeners and plant sellers realize there are many native alternatives to Japanese barberry, including dwarf fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenia), highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus) and Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica). 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