How to Trim Barberry Shrubs

Barberry bushes contribute several elements to your landscaping. They add color throughout the year, provide berries for birds, and set very-prickly boundaries between yards or areas you wish to shelter from traffic. Their vigorous growth recommends them as a quick solution to boundary issues. That same vigor, however, means they can easily get out of control, growing where not wanted or overwhelming other plantings. Frequent pruning is usually needed to keep barberry where it belongs. This can be done as often as needed if you take some protective measures to avoid the plentiful and painful thorns.

Heavy work gloves
Long-sleeved jacket (denim, nylon)
Safety glasses, if bushes are face-high
Secaturs, pruning shears or long-handled loppers
Nylon rope and an old sheet or plastic drop-cloth
Drag-bag or other container for pruning waste

Instructions

- 1
  Don protective clothing and sweep an arm through barberry shrub to make sure you are protected from thorns. Lay out drag-bag or other container for pruned branches--everything you cut off will go on/in this, because cuttings and berries root with amazing (alarming?) ease.
- 2
  Prune to desired height, width, shape. If one bush makes it difficult to trim another, wrap obstructive bush in drop-cloth and secure with nylon rope till you finish pruning the first. Do not worry about removing main branches (thinning); established barberry is pruned from the outside-in, and new growth will soon replace at least part of what you have removed.
- 3
  Check nearby ground for new sprouting plants. Dig or pull out--even on new sprouting plants, roots will be long and deep.
- 4
  Put all pruning waste in a container to prevent new plants from starting.
- 5
  Prune again at will. New spring growth will be long, leggy and easy to remove. Shrubs will fill in steadily during summer and fall and you may wish to prune again during that period.

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