Plant · P-435

Highbush Blueberry

Vaccinium corymbosum

Highbush blueberry is a native deciduous shrub found from Nova Scotia to Georgia, grown for its vitamin-C-rich berries eaten raw or baked into pies, pastries and jellies. It needs consistently moist, acid, lime-free soil in a narrow pH band, so on alkaline ground it usually has to be grown in an acidified raised bed rather than in the open. Around thirty species of birds eat the fruit and native bees favor the flowers, making it as much a wildlife planting as a food crop. Plant two different cultivars together - it is only partly self-fertile, and cross-pollination raises the crop sharply.