Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea

Purple Barberry hedge (Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea) description

The Purple Japanese Berberis produces soft oval foliage that is a rich, dark purple. Where the leaves are caught in bright sunlight a purplish-red glow can be admired. In the spring and summer yellow flowers are borne which stand out wonderfully against the velvet-like purple foliage. The flowers of Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea are closely followed by deep orange, glossy berries that hang like teardrops on the undersides of arching branches. As the season progresses these orange berries turn scarlet red and are a welcome treat for wildlife. The foliage develops a fiery display of orange and red before falling to leave nothing but the bare branches and their harsh thorns until the bright purple-red new foliage of the next spring.

Best uses for Purple Berberis hedges

A perfect intruder deterrent, Purple Berberis is small enough to be kept beneath a window or used as an alternative to Box for path edging (we've seen this at Prince Charles' country house Highgrove). Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea will tolerate full shade, though autumn colour, flowering and foliage colour will be better in the sun or partial shade. This prickly plant is suited to coastal and exposed sites and is happy in any soil that isn't wet. Purple Japanese Barberry makes colourful garden hedging and is often used for landscape gardening. It is ideal when used as a dark foil for other plants and can be left to bush and arch naturally or, kept trimmed, looks neat and formal.

Combine Purple Barberry plants with

Consider growing with Green Berberis (Berberis thunbergii) for a colour mix, or combine with Barberry Rose Glow (Berberis thun. 'Rose Glow') which has mottled purple, pink and cream variegated foliage. Of course, Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea looks stunning grown alone. If a mix of shrubs for hedging is your preference, then check out our Mixed Tapestry Hedging packs.

Growth rate of Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea

Expect 10-15cm a year from this Purple Berberis and final height of up to 1m.

Care advice for Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea hedging

To keep this Purple Berberis in good nick trim after flowering. Please view the Best 4 Hedging Care and Planting instructions in our Advice section.

Recommended planting density for Purple Japanese barberry hedge plants

For information on planting density please see the product table above. In the 'No. Per Metre' column, you will find our recommended plant density for each individual plant species and root type.

For the most part, our Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea hedge plants are grown here in the UK by our horticultural experts with decades of growing experience. Now and again we buy Purple Japanese Barberry from carefully chosen horticultural authorities outside of the United Kingdom, where we are positive that quality can't be beaten. At Best4hedging we always do our utmost to ensure that your plants arrive in the freshest condition and that they are the finest quality, whilst maintaining our excellent prices, so you can buy Berberis hedging plants online with total assurance of their quality and the excellent service that we will provide you with.

• Orders £100 & over (ex. VAT) to mainland UK are delivered FREE* (Exceptions apply - see below for Scottish Highlands etc)
• Orders under £100 (ex. VAT) to mainland UK £15
• At an additional cost, we can deliver to Scottish Highlands & Islands, which we classify as including AB (Aberdeen) and DD (Dundee) postcodes, as well as Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Isle Man. The exact delivery cost is order specific and will need to be quoted by one of our team, so please contact us on 01257 261 243

*For some plants that are too heavy or too tall to be packed in cardboard boxes we use pallet deliveries. In these circumstances, we require a minimum order value of £250 (ex VAT) for free delivery, or you can make a contribution towards the delivery cost. Look out for the information on product pages which explains this further where applicable and if your order is for less than £250 (ex VAT) please call or email us to agree upon a delivery contribution. This requirement only applies to those plants where it is clearly indicated on the product page

Pallet deliveries are always undertaken on an 18-tonne vehicle (similar in size to a standard refuse vehicle). If for any reason you require a smaller vehicle please contact our sales team who can arrange this for you. There will be an additional surcharge applied for small vehicle deliveries

Delivery Timescales

99% of our orders are dispatched within 10 to 14 working days of receipt and most the day after the order is placed. We can do “next day delivery” on many of our products for an additional £12 (incl VAT) but please call on 01257 494 491 before placing your order to check.

We can also deliver on a specified date to suit you. Please indicate the date you would like to receive delivery in the notes section of the checkout (or place your order by phone) and we’ll do our utmost to meet that date.

Occasional hiccups can occur (such as broken down vehicles) and although we are very experienced in logistics we cannot be held liable for costs incurred or inconvenience due to late deliveries - see terms and conditions for more information.

You will receive an email or telephone call confirming the dispatch of your order 24/48 hours before it arrives with you.

Exceptions to our quick turnaround timescale

Pre-orders - if you have placed an order that includes products on pre-order, then they will be dispatched to you as soon as they are available. If your order includes pre-order bare roots or root balls you will be notified once they are being dispatched (root balls from mid to late October and bare roots from early to mid-November).

Root balls - lifting root balls involves the use of complex, heavy machinery, this lifting is carried out twice a week in the root ball season so we do still have a prompt turnaround timescale but if your order has just missed one lifting, it will be a few days before we lift again. We are always happy to confirm when we can deliver to you before you order. The benefit of this method of supplying root balls is that they are always fresh and therefore have a higher success rate than root balls that are stored out of the soil.

Weather conditions can affect dispatch - bare root and root ball plants are not lifted if the ground is too cold (it damages the roots) and the delivery of all plants can be affected if the water supply is frozen (because we water all plants before packing). Extremely hot weather can also be challenging and occasionally we hold backorders for species that are particularly vulnerable. We ask our customers to be mindful of bank holidays when couriers are not active.

We'd like to stress that although there are exceptions, the vast majority of our orders are dispatched extremely quickly and we are proud of our logistics developed over many years of delivering plants to tens of thousands of customers.

Returns

We inspect plants carefully before dispatch but accept that very occasionally things may go wrong. 
You can return your plants (within 14 days) for a refund or replacement (we’ll help with the process of returning). If your plants arrived damaged then returns are free of charge. However, we ask that you inform us as soon as possible. If you’d like to return your plants because of a change of plan or if we do not agree that the plants are significantly damaged (the loss of a few leaves in transit or a loose pot on arrival, for example, wouldn't be harmful to the plants), then we may ask you to pay the full or partial return costs if you still wanted to return them. We’re very reasonable and always aim for complete satisfaction as demonstrated by our amazing Feefo customer reviews which can be viewed here.

Should you wish to return any products that you have over-bought, no longer require or purchased in error you will incur both a return cost (different charges for pallets and Boxes) and the original cost of delivery incurred by Best4hedging. Please contact the Service team for charges and/or to organise a return. Plants will be subject to a quality control check from our Nursery upon return before any refund is authorised and processed.

Please note that in the case of damaged plants, if you have not notified us of a problem within 14 days of delivery, we consider you to have accepted the plants and Best4Hedging has no further liability for them should they fail.

You can read more about our returns policy in our terms and conditions here.

You can buy with confidence from best4hedging.

We accept all major credit and debit cards. We have also partnered with PayPal to provide a further, secure payment option.

You can order online or over the phone by calling our dedicated Sales & Advice team. 

If you have any further questions in regards to payment, please do get in touch. You can read our Terms & Conditions here.

Call our Sales & Advice team on 01257 261 243

Email us at [email protected]