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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Vaccinium corymbosum
The Highbush Blueberry is one of those rare plants that has it all. Wonderful foliage, handsome bark, glowing fall color, beautiful flowers, important contributions to native wildlife—makes it easy to forget that the plant still has a tasty fruit up its sleeve of tricks! Highbush Blueberries grow well in bog ecosystems, which are naturally acidic and wet. Even though bogs don’t occur in the Piedmont, our Georgia red clay holds a great deal of moisture and is strongly acidic, making it perfectly suitable for Blueberry cultivation.
American horticulture is slowly beginning to turn to the edible landscape as a way for people to have fun, decorate their lawns with beautiful native plants, and get closer to nature. Most importantly, gardening with Blueberries provides large, tasty crops of fruit that feed you and wildlife, all without harmful chemicals or the use of fossil fuel energy. The Blueberry, a keystone plant of this movement, is simply a no-loss proposition from every angle. With little maintenance other than perhaps regular irrigation and initial attention to planting, Blueberry plants are delightful in appearance, personal satisfaction, and taste!
Ericaceae (Heath)
Highbush Blueberry is a typically multi-stemmed deciduous shrub. Mature specimens sport craggy and contorted stems. Leaf color is highly variable in wild stands, ranging from glossy green to a glaucous blue. Leaves are elliptical and up to 2”long. Flowers are bell-shaped with fused petals and white in color. Fruits are ¼” in diameter, astringent when immature but sweet, tart, and blue to black when ripe. Fall color has a wide range from brownish purple to bright crimson and orange.
3-10 feet high and 3-10 feet wide
Deciduous shrub
Moderate to fast
Full or partial sun; flowering and fruiting increase with light duration/intensity
Highbush Blueberry prefers to be kept moist and acidic. To accomplish the former, amend the soil with as much organic matter as possible. Then, top with 2-4 inches of mulch. Rows of blueberry bushes are suitable for drip irrigation. For the latter, amend the soil with sulfur, Ericaceous (or azalea/rhododendron/acid-loving plant) fertilizers, or peat moss. pH should be in a range from 4.0-5.5, although 6.0 is tolerable.
Blueberries are marvelously ornamental with uniquely glaucous foliage whose juvenile color resembles Eucalyptus leaves. Their flowers have a pleasant, dainty shape, and their varied fall color schemes are amazing in mass plantings. But perhaps the best reason of all to plant Highbush Blueberry is that they produce a wonderful, tasty fruit with the cost of only a little love and care.
Blueberries have wonderful ornamental value as a specimen, but they truly shine in rows or groupings. They make an excellent and relatively small fruiting plant for gardeners without space, and are even suitable for large containers for those with decks and patios. Fruit yield dramatically increases if more than one individual is planted. They work wonderfully in rows against the house, near gutters where they appreciate the moisture, and as centerpieces, borders, or cornerstones of a vegetable garden.
Blueberry foliage is an important food for the caterpillars of the Brown Elfin, Red-spotted Purple, Spring Azure, and Striped Hairstreak. The flowers attract and feed bees and butterflies during the day and moths during the night. Insect life is particularly photogenic while feeding on Blueberry flowers because they hang upside down to do so. The young, glaucous foliage and flowers are often browsed by White-tailed Deer in the spring.
Native from Nova Scotia, Maine, and Michigan south to Texas and east to Florida. Specific habitat sites include open or wooded swamps and bogs, old fields and watersides, and road ditches.
Stratified seed, cuttings
Text by Kevin Tarner, Georgia Wildlife Federation
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