The Beauty of Blueberries in the Landscape

Would you like a plant that gives you incredible fruit, has beautiful flowers, summer foliage and stunning orange/red fall foliage?! Use Blueberries! They offer wonderful edible and ornamental qualities, can be grown organically, and have few pest problems.

Blueberries offer great opportunities for use in the landscape foreground as a groundcover or in the background mixed within an ornamental border or even as a hedge. The blueberry fruit
alone offers a wide range of color from light blue to black. The lustrous green foliage offers a nice background for their white flowers. And their fall color can be yellow, orange, red or purple!

Lowbush blueberries are one of the three berries native to North America and they thrive in glacial soils and northern climates. Highbush blueberries are seen growing in acidic native forests. Blueberries are members of the Ericaceae Family, which generally prefer acidic well drained soil. Other plants in this family include rhododendrons, azaleas, laurel, inkberry, and
pieris. Do you have any of these plants growing well in your landscape now? Then your site is probably a great candidate for blueberries! If you have a less acidic site, you may add acidic fertilizer to create the environment that blueberries need.

For best fruit production, blueberries require at least 6 hours of full sun. However, blueberries will grow in part shade and still produce some berries. They do like acidic, well-drained soil 9 (pH between 4.5 and 5.5) and will require extra water during the fruiting season, dependent on how much sun they are receiving. However, once bluein berries are established they are particularly tolerant of heat and drought-like conditions.

I like to use the lowbush blueberry varieties as a groundcover in more acidic, welldrained
landscapes. The ‘Brunswick’ lowbush blueberry is a semi-evergreen, self-pollinating shrub that only grows 8-12" tall with a 2-3’ spread. It has slightly glossy, deep green foliage. The flower buds are slightly red and open to form white flowers. And, it has abundant blooms and fruits
mid-summer. The scarletpurple foliage color in the fall is stunning. What a powerhouse of
a groundcover! Plant it with Galium (Sweet Woodruff ) in front and transition to Hosta, Hydrangeas and Rhododendrons in the background and you will have a beautiful ornamental and edible planting! I have seen it used very successfully in mass on slopes, as a groundcover under small trees in courtyards, and as an edging along woodland walks.

The Highbush blueberry is wonderful in the landscape used within the shrub border or as hedge. It is one of the easiest plants to grow and is attractive for more than just its berries. Its white flowers cover the plant in May, superior glossy, green foliage and berries are beautiful blue in summer, amazing red/orange foliage color in fall, and twig color in the winter rival many others. Many Highbush blueberries are incredibly cold-hardy. This plant can offer a functional and aesthetically pleasing hedge, reaching heights that vary between 5- 10’ in height. Use the Highbush blueberry within an existing ornamental border in combination with Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Pieris. Combine with large leaf/textured shrubs like herbaceous Hydrangeas, Ninebarks or Sambucus, to contrast the glossy, dark green narrow foliage of the
Highbush blueberry. Some varieties of Highbush blueberry have colored twigs offering winter interest, such as the ‘Blue Jay’ with bright yellow twigs.

With all the amazing landscape attributes, incredible berry taste, and high antioxidant and vitamin content, there is no reason everyone shouldn’t have blueberries in their landscape! At Horsford’s we offer many varieties including two Lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) varieties and five Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) varieties. See our website at www.horsfordnursery. com to find out more about our blueberries in the fruit section in our Plant List.