blueberries as landscape plants

[snewman]

We finally built our wraparound porch, which means I can do lots of landscaping this spring. I would like to use as many edible plants in my plan as possible, and I was wondering about some of the the low-bush or dwarf blueberries. Has anyone grown them? Do you like them? Do they end up looking as good in real life as they do in the catalogs? Has anyone tried the tophat or dwarf northsky?

Also, kind of a separate question, but related; in the catalogs some of the varieties are described as having "wild blueberry flavor". I've never had wild blueberries, so what do they taste like compared to domestic?

 

[lupinfarm]

We planted a bunch of blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry last year in our front garden behind our picket fence as edible landscape plants. I have most of my blueberries on the side of my garden where we have an enormous peony because I don't need them to be so "poppy" there as the peony takes most of the attention.

 

[HiDelight]

HI there
well wild blueberry taste is just more intense flavor the big fat berries are increasingly more tasteless IMHO

yes you can put them all over the landscape and they are a wonderful draw for you to eat as well as wild birds

I have berries all in and around my flowers

blueberries do like acidic soil so that is the one thing you have to consider when planting them

they get all my coffee grounds

good luck

 

[cwhit590]

Hey snewman,

I think using blueberries in the landscaping would be a great idea. They really have year-round interest - spring flowers, summer fruit, bright red fall color, and red stems for winter color.

I don't have any experience with the dwarf blueberries... I'm assuming they are slow growers....it may take awhile for them to get established if you are starting with small plants. I'm sure they would work great in the landscaping.

As far as wild blueberry flavor....we have wild blueberries here, and like HiDelight said, the flavor is just more intense...sometimes a little more tart (occasionally the wild ones don't always ripen as evenly).

You may have to battle the birds for your berries...rabbits and deer like to munch on the branches in the winter too...

 

[snewman]

Thanks for the input!

 

[patandchickens]

Blueberries are great landscape plants if you naturally have blueberry-friendly soil (quite acidic and reasonably even in moisture, not drying out too much nor getting to waterlogged for too long).

If your soil is kind of borderline -- maybe pH 5 or so, and reasonable moisture regime -- you can amend it and grow them pretty well as long as you remember to check soil pH once or twice a year and treat as necessary.

However if your soil is not reasonably close to what blueberries want -- and they have very little sense of humor about higher pHs -- it is probably better to consider something else rather than waste time and money on them, IMHO.

Wild blueberry flavor is, uh, FLAVOR, as opposed to the bland-ish sweet mushy nothingness of a lot of commercial blueberries. You will like it, honest Best varieties vary by area, so it is worth seeing what your state extension service advises.

They have very purty red-orange foliage in the fall, too. When well grown. Not, unfortunately, feasible in all soils.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat