Love this plant! Very happy here in Zone 8a heavy black clay. Planted on a small berm to ensure good drainage. Lives on rainwater once es...Read Moretablished. Recommend heavy gloves when working with this plant as the glossy holly-like leaves have wicked spines. This evergreen shrub is covered with beautiful fragrant yellow blooms in the early spring and provides good bee forage when not much else is blooming. Blooms are followed by small red fruits that are adored by mockingbirds. Mine have a nice unpruned shape and are 4 feet tall and slightly less wide after 5 years. Nice native alternative to exotic holly plants.
Starting from seed info:: From the book “How to Grow Native Plants of Texas and the Southwest” by Jill Nokes:Collect the fruit from May to June when it has turned deep red or purple. Remove the seeds from the pulp and air dry before storage. Store seeds over winter in a sealed container in the refrigerator for spring planting. Seeds can also be sown outdoors in prepared seed beds in early fall. Natural germination occurs the spring following seed dispersal. Seeds germinate best when soils do not exceed 70 degrees F. Plant the seeds 1/8 to 1/4 inch deep in a well-drained seedbed or container. The soil should be very well drained and care should be taken not to overwater. Seeds are very slow growing and susceptible to damping off fungi.
Does anyone know if this plant can be grown in far west central Louisiana? Even if it would not thrive as it might in a drier climate, w...Read Moreould it at least survive? It is such a beautiful and bird-friendly plant...would love to add it to our property!
Rancho Santa Rita, TX (Zone 8a) | April 2013 | positive
Use Wildlife: Songbirds eat fruits. Quail and small mammals use the plant for cover. Considered a good honey source.
Use ...Read MoreFood: The lustrous red fruit, is a pea-sized berry that is used in making jelly and wine. Use Other: Roots furnished a yellow dye used by early pioneers.
I want to pick the berries off the bush and replant. When is the best time to plant and what do I do with the berries before planting in...Read More the ground?
We have these plants growing all across the front of our property along with mountain mahogony and wild lilac(ceonothus). It also grows ...Read Morewild all along our canyon road. Because of a drought the past few years it's pretty stressed right now though. I have a question. Several of the bushes have this stuff that looks like a stretchy, spider webby material on the branches that has little egg like looking things on the outside of it. It looks as though the branches where it is are dying. Does anyone know what it is or what to do about it?
San Antonio, TX (Zone 8b) | February 2009 | positive
Agarita (Mahonia trifoliolata, synonym: Berberis trifoliolata) is also commonly known as agritos, currant-of-Texas, wild currant and chap...Read Morearral berry. It is native to southern Arizona and southern New Mexico to the Panhandle and Trans-Pecos areas of Texas, east and south through central and south Texas and into Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. It can be differentiated from Texas mahonia (B. swaseyi) and red barberry (B. haematocarpa) by its having three leaflets joined at a central point (trifoliate). This evergreen shrub slowly grows between 3 to 6 feet tall, which can reach 8 feet when growing in favorable conditions. The rigid, spreading branches often form thickets. It has gray-green to blue-gray, holly-like foliage which has needle-sharp tips. Clusters of fragrant, yellow flowers are followed by red berries from May to July. The fruits are eaten by songbirds and quail and small mammals use the plant for cover. It is considered to be a good honey source as well. It makes a great accent, screen, rock garden, xeriscape or wildscape plant.
I grew up in West Central Texas where the algerita flourished on rangeland. The orange colored berry makes wonderful filling for pies. ...Read MoreOne word of caution about picking the berries. The plants produce mature fruit in mid Spring, and birds are attracted to them. Unfortunately, snakes are attracted to the birds. I have seen rattlers coiled beneath algerita bushes in wait for the unwary.
It also makes a fabulous wine...birds also love it, and little cottontails love to hide beneath the protective shelter from predators. M...Read Morey experience with it was in the Texas hill country. When harvesting expect some insects when harvesting the berries. Also, some dry leaves. These may be eliminated by turning a fan on high and blowing them away.
Wonderful carefree plant if you live in a hot/dry area and are sick of cactus. Produces edible fruit that makes good jelly ~ to harvest,...Read More lay a sheet under the plant and hold one branch out over the sheet with a stick while tapping/hitting the branch with another. Has thorns on leaves like holly ~ plant in rows along your property line to keep the neighbor kids out of your yard. If you break a limb, the wood inside is a bright, vibrant yellow. I read somewhere that it was used as a dye plant because of this.
Needs good drainage ~ resents wet feet. If watered once a week or so it will be much healthier and more attractive ~ pretty enough that the leaves can be used at Christmastime as a slimmer-leaved, lighter green substitute for holly. If not watered regularly, it will still do fine, but will grow much slower and produce less flowers/fruit. Takes 20 years or so to reach 5 or 6 feet tall and about that wide in the wild ~ half that if cultivated and watered regularly.
Love this plant! Very happy here in Zone 8a heavy black clay. Planted on a small berm to ensure good drainage. Lives on rainwater once es...Read More
Does anyone know if this plant can be grown in far west central Louisiana? Even if it would not thrive as it might in a drier climate, w...Read More
Use Wildlife: Songbirds eat fruits. Quail and small mammals use the plant for cover. Considered a good honey source.
Use ...Read More
Has anyone in the Houston area grown agrito successfully?
aka currant-of-texas, mahonia trifoliolata, etc.
I want to pick the berries off the bush and replant. When is the best time to plant and what do I do with the berries before planting in...Read More
We have these plants growing all across the front of our property along with mountain mahogony and wild lilac(ceonothus). It also grows ...Read More
I got one of these growing now in my desert garden thanks to a bird. I decided to let it grow when I found out what it was.
Agarita (Mahonia trifoliolata, synonym: Berberis trifoliolata) is also commonly known as agritos, currant-of-Texas, wild currant and chap...Read More
I live in west Texas and the algerita are berry-laden this season.
I grew up in West Central Texas where the algerita flourished on rangeland. The orange colored berry makes wonderful filling for pies. ...Read More
It also makes a fabulous wine...birds also love it, and little cottontails love to hide beneath the protective shelter from predators. M...Read More
Wonderful carefree plant if you live in a hot/dry area and are sick of cactus. Produces edible fruit that makes good jelly ~ to harvest,...Read More