Vaccinium ashei ‘Alapaha’

Sold as a 3-gallon plant, pick up only.

If one fruit tells the story of Southern summers, it is the blueberry, and the rabbiteye is the blueberry of the South: a big, heat-loving native shrub grown from the Carolinas to the Gulf as Vaccinium ashei, now often listed as Vaccinium virgatum. 'Alapaha' was bred at the University of Georgia and named for the Alapaha River of the coastal plain, a cultivar that carries the region's heritage while ripening a full week ahead of most rabbiteyes. The species name ashei honors the Southern forester William Willard Ashe, and the common name rabbiteye comes from the pink blush the immature berries wear before they darken to blue.

White, bell-shaped flowers open in spring like a quiet herald and give way to firm, medium-sized berries, sweet with a balanced tang and early enough to open the blueberry season. The fruit is fine for fresh eating, cobblers, and preserves, or for a warm handful gathered straight from the bush on a hot afternoon.

Bred for the South, 'Alapaha' is heat-tolerant, disease-resistant, and at home in the sandy or loamy acid soils that raised the species, on an upright, compact frame that suits a backyard as readily as a small orchard. Like all rabbiteyes, the plant crops most heavily with a pollination partner, so set a second early rabbiteye such as 'Climax' or 'Brightwell' nearby for a bounty worth sharing.

Give 'Alapaha' full sun, an acid and well-drained bed, and a pine-straw mulch over the shallow roots, and the plant rewards the year with spring flowers for the bees, clean summer foliage, and a warm fall flush. To plant a rabbiteye is to take part in an old Southern story of generous land, a full kitchen, and fruit gathered under a summer sky.