A Weed to be Loved

In Nov 2011, The Telegraph had an article about the Berberis:
" A Plant in Need of Love
The most despised of garden plants - routinely exiled to the outer reaches of supermarket car-parks and the central reservation of motorways, spiny and unloved, valued only as a communal litter-trap or burglarproof hedge."

An Ode to a Weed to be loved, Berberis


I wanted it as soon as I saw it.
The beautiful orangeness with depths of shade.
A hedge-maker?
No, a beauty at the bottom of the garden,
a spark of flame visible from the house,
a sign of summer,
whilst waiting for spring.