Blueberries are the fruiting shrubs of the genus Vaccinium, as ornamental as they are productive. Southern gardeners grow the heat-loving rabbiteye and Southern highbush kinds, which shrug off the humidity and mild winters that defeat Northern highbush types. Beyond the fruit, they offer dainty white or pink spring flowers, clean summer foliage, and some of the most brilliant red and orange autumn color of any shrub.

In the landscape there is no reason to hide blueberries in a fruit cage at the bottom of the garden. Neat, well-behaved, and handsome in every season, they belong in the border and the foundation planting as readily as the kitchen garden. Grown as an informal hedge, a mixed-border shrub, or a productive edible screen, they give ornament and a real harvest from the same plant.

We grow blueberries because they are among the most rewarding edibles for the Southern garden and genuinely good for the wild garden too. The spring flowers are a magnet for native bees; the ripe fruit feeds people and birds alike; and as members of a largely native genus, they fit the regional habitat rather than fighting it. Plant more than one kind for the best cross-pollination and the longest picking season.

Give them full sun, and acid, moist, well-drained soil rich in organic matter, the same conditions that suit azaleas. Grow them alongside our Edibles, pair the soil needs with our Azaleas & Rhododendron, and find more native fruit among our Southeastern Natives.