Well you would think blueberries have to be blue! There are exceptions to the blue rule! For example, I am growing pink blueberries and regular blueberries. There are black blueberries, but I am not growing this variety yet.
Let’s start out with the Bluecrop Blueberry. This blueberry plant has white flowers in the Spring, medium to large light blue fruit that grows in dense clusters in the Summer and red leaves in the Fall. I’ve been growing this variety for several years but I moved the plant two years ago which I think slowed down its growth. This year it looks pretty good. It can grow up to four feet tall and wide.
I am also growing a Pink Lemonade Blueberry (see the 1st picture above) that has pale pink flowers in the Spring, produces pink blueberries in the summer and has red leaves in the Fall. This plant can grow up to 5 feet tall. During the Summer, the leaves on the Pink Lemonade are a lighter green than the Bluecrop. Also, the Pink Lemonade berries are smaller but sweeter than the Bluecrop.
These plants are tolerant down to Zone 4 . They need to be planted with another blueberry variety for best fruit production.
I have these blueberry plants in my herb garden right next to the raspberry plant that I talked about this week. Since blueberries are acid loving plants, I like to use Espoma Organic food called Holly-tone. It should be used in the Spring and Fall according to the directions on the package.
Don’t forget that any dead and dying branches need to be pruned!
Just to be on the safe side, I draped some light weight bird netting over the blueberry plants to deter the birds and the deer from nibbling! I will provide an update in the Fall.