A couple of questions: first, what’s the correct name these days, Mahonia or Berberis? Secondly, I’m trying to plant a succession of flowering Mahonia (or Berberis?) to attract hummingbirds to my Seattle garden. I have Mahonia X media ‘Charity.’ In what order do various species bloom?
The current accepted name for Mahonia is Berberis. I checked several local sources to compare flowering times for different species:
- Great Plant Picks (click “Find your plant” in the upper right hand corner
- Paghat’s Garden
- Arthur Lee Jacobson
- The Gossler Guide to the Best Hardy Shrubs by Roger, Eric, and Marjory Gossler (Timber Press, 2009)
In approximate blooming order, here are several Berberis species:
- Berberis x media ‘Charity’ and other cultivars (December-January)
- Berberis repens (February-March)
- Berberis aquifolium (as early as January but peaks March/April, into May)
- Berberis bealei (“early spring,” according to Gossler)
- Berberis nervosa (May)