Connecticut Nurseries Voluntarily Ban Barberry Species

The Connecticut Nursery & Landscape Association and its members are voluntarily imposing an industry ban state wide on 25 Berberis thunbergii cultivars and parent species (wild type). According to CNLA, UConn’s nearly seven years of research on barberry confirms that every plant is different—even cultivars within a species. Decisions to ban plants must be done after careful research when there is evidence that cultivars within a species may not be as invasive as the parent species.

 

The Connecticut Nursery & Landscape Association and its members are voluntarily imposing an industry ban state wide on 25 Berberis thunbergii cultivars and parent species (wild type). Based on scientific research, much of which is currently being done at the University of Connecticut (UConn) College of Agriculture, the Connecticut Nursery and Landscape Association (CNLA) and its members acknowledge that the above list of cultivars represents an unacceptable risk to Connecticut 's environment.

The nurseries are removing from production and sale 13 high seed producing cultivars above the level of the parent species (green barberry) and another 12 cultivars that produce seed at a rate less than the green barberry. The cultivars remaining in cultivation after this ban are in the lowest 10 percent of the spectrum of viable seed production based on the research by Dr. Mark Brand at the University of Connecticut.

There are many members of the Barberry family, some well known for their ornamental qualities, quite a few producing a useful edible berry. All are easy to grow; tolerating any well-drained soil, even chalk and making a good informal if rather spiny hedge. The only pruning necessary is that to keep it tidy, perhaps taking out weak and old stems to encourage new ones. Bees love the early, profuse yellow flowers.

Most of the sales and production of Berberis cultivars in Connecticut in this list are concentrated in “Rose Glow”, which up to this point has been a popular species. CNLA estimates annual sales in of the 25 cultivars at $2.5 million per year retail, and over $5 million wholesale.

• CNLA will formally enact this voluntary ban started July 1, 2010.
  
• As of the adoption date NO NEW production of these cultivars will take place.
  
• There will be a 3 year phase out, from the adoption date, of these cultivars to allow plants currently in production to be moved out of the industry.
  
• An education campaign will be launched to help inform the general public of the risks associated with these cultivars.
• An effort to bring the mass merchants into honoring this agreement will be made by communicating directly with the buyers for those chain stores.
• No listed plants would be brought into the State of Connecticut from other states
• Future efforts will be made, based on scientific data as it becomes available, and appropriate declarations will be made as necessary. 

According to CNLA, UConn’s nearly seven years of research on barberry confirms that every plant is different—even cultivars within a species. Decisions to ban plants must be done after careful research when there is evidence that cultivars within a species may not be as invasive as the parent species.

Click here for the full statement and list of banned cultivars.