Oh where, oh where did all the barberry go? This is a question we get all the time as many people have been looking for these beautiful deer resistant landscape shrubs. But sad to say barberry is banned in New York State since 2016.

I may catch some flack from gardening groups around Sullivan County that have been trying for years to get barberry listed on the invasive species list, but there are a lot of benefits to planting barberries as well. First and foremost is the fact that deer will not eat them and lately there is not much that they won't eat.

Second they do provide a benefit to birds and small animals like rabbits. Birds eat the abundant berries that provide a good source of food. Of course this is why barberries are so invasive, the actual barberry seed can survive the digestive track of most birds and the seeds can literally fly miles from the plant that produced the seed.

Rabbits and other small animals use barberries as a safe haven as the masses of thorns throughout the barberry will keep larger predators like coyote away. Third, barberry come in a wide range of sizes and colors, beside the standard green leaf variety there are yellow, orange, pink and red leaf varieties available.

Some barberries grow as small bushes while others can grow ten to twelve feet high like roman pillars. They are great landscape plants that can be planted in both sun or part shade and they can tolerate our poor soil in Sullivan County. But despite all the benefits the New York State DEC has placed the barberry on the invasive species list. The full list can be found online at www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/93484.html.

I will admit that I have a barberry growing near my front deck that I never planted, the birds that come to my feeder did it for me. But it is a nice red leaf variety that did fit in nicely until my wife had it removed to make room for a burning bush that the birds also deposited there. Burning bush spreads just as fast as barberry but they have not been banned because they are native plants.

The two plants were competing for the same space so she said the barberry had to go. Of course a year after the barberry was removed the deer ate the burning bush. Something they should never do as general rule of thumb in the past is that deer will not eat plants with a square stem. Mint, bee balm, hyssop and burning bush all have square stems and are deer resistant, but not deer proof.

But back to the barberry, don't worry if you have a barberry in your yard, you won't have to pull it out, but the regulations prevent them from being available for sale in New York and you are not allowed to bring them into the state from elsewhere either. So if you want to get a barberry you will have to settle for some replacement plants that can fit the bill for being colorful and have better than average deer resistance.

One good choice would be Physocarpus, commonly called ninebark, which comes in many different sizes and colors. Ninebarks are a native plant that have been hybridized over time to form different sizes and colors while still retaining a fair level of deer resistance.

Spireas, Wiegelas and potentillas are also good choices for colorful plants that are less likely to be eaten by our abundant deer population. And you never know, a bird may deposit a barberry for you.