BERBERIS. Barberry. Widespread, especially in Asia. Someday soon we will have to yield to the latest botanical pronouncements and include the plants fondly known as mahonias under this heading. For now, however, let us continue the traditional division of the groups. The following are spiny shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous. All have beautiful foliage, small, waxy flowers and interesting, sometimes colorful and tasty berries. They are useful as specimen shrubs, foundation plants, hedges and barriers (some are wickedly spiny). They thrive in full sun or light shade and most soils, with moderate to occasional watering when established. Their hardiness varies.

vulgaris ‘Purple Cloak’. Common barberry. Asia, Europe, North America. A stout shrub, rather similar in appearance to B. thunbergii, above, but with conspicuously furrowed stems, becoming greyish with age. The leaves are broadly oval, dark green in the typical form, and winter-deciduous. Yellow flowers are borne in hanging clusters, giving way to blood red berries. In the selection ‘Purple Cloak’, the leaves are deep reddish purple in hue, much like those of the best B. thunbergii selections. Hardy to below 0^oF.