Blueberries are a nutrient-dense and delicious superfood that you can grow yourself. However, before you plant your berries, it’s a good idea to educate yourself on the various sorts of blueberry bushes available and which blueberry varieties are best for your area.
We have discussed some of the most common varieties of blueberries below:
Blueberry Varieties
1. Biloxi
This Southern Highbush cultivar was developed at Mississippi State University and is a very young cultivar. It’s also suitable for low- or no-chill situations.
That’s right: ‘Biloxi’ may thrive in your area even if you don’t have enough nights with sub-zero temperatures to grow other sorts of fruit. It thrives in climates with fewer than 150 chill hours per season, yet it will still bear fruit if planted in a cooler climate.
Plant in acidic soil enriched with pine mulch and peat, in full sun, for a robust growth habit and medium-sized berries that are available to harvest early in the season.
2. Bluecrop
The world’s most popular variety! ‘Bluecrop’ is an upright, open-growing, spreading Northern Highbush type that grows at a medium rate, reaching a mature height of 5 to 6 feet and a spread of 4-6 feet.
Green leaves that turn crimson on red stems in the fall provide decorative appeal into the winter, with a modest growth rate. Above all, the hard, medium-sized pale blue fruit is prized for its flavor, and the berries are resistant to shattering.
This mid-season variety produces blooms in May and harvests in early August, so you can expect steady yields and ongoing output.
This variety thrives in biologically rich soil with consistent hydration and good drainage, and it has been found to thrive in places of the garden where other vegetables fail. When fully mature, ‘Bluecrop’ is known for its disease resistance and drought tolerance.
Because this type is noted for having shallow roots, take caution when cultivating or tending to other plants in the area.
3. Blueray
With tasty, light blueberries that ripen in early to mid-July, this Northern Highbush cultivar is well-known for cross-pollination with other highbush cultivars. With a maximum height of 5-6 feet and a spread of 3 to 4 feet, the green foliage turns scarlet in the fall.
The crack-resistant ‘Blueray’ berries are noted for having a robust blueberry flavor and scent, as well as firm flesh. This type is noted for overproducing, which means it will naturally set an abundance of fruit that might stress the plant, requiring regular and careful pruning.
4. Brightwell
Rabbiteye Blueberry is a cultivar of Brightwell Blueberry. Rabbiteye blueberries thrive in the Southern United States because of their ability to survive severe heat and drought. These blueberries are prolific and hardy, adapting to a wide range of environmental circumstances.
Tifblue goes well with the Brightwell blueberry shrub. With a height of up to 10 feet, the Brightwell Blueberry has an upright growth style that produces abundant leaves and fruit! Late spring to early summer is when the flowers bloom. In the middle to late summer, expect an abundance of ripe fruit. During the growing season, the foliage is mostly green, but it becomes a lovely shade of crimson in the fall. Brightwell Blueberry Bushes need full sun and acidic soil to thrive.
When deciding where to put your blueberry bush, keep this in mind. Blueberry production requires cross-pollination; thus, planting multiple varieties is recommended. Premier goes great with Brightwell. Once your Brightwell Blueberry has established itself, it can be pruned back. Late winter or early spring is the best time to prune.
5. Legacy
Legacy routinely places in the top ten percent of taste tests. When mature on the shrub, the berries are medium to large and quite tasty. A mature bush’s yield is above average, averaging 8 to 10 pounds per bush. Due to a five-week-long harvest season, productivity is strong.
Because it thrives in zones 7 and 8, it’s becoming more common in commercial orchards in those areas. In late mid-season, good yields of high-quality berries ripen. Annual pruning is required to keep the growth habit upright.
At 5-6 feet tall, it is mature. Zones 5-8 are recommended. Legacy, a USDA release, is one of the greatest options for warm-zone plantings while also being hardy in southern Michigan.
6. Pink Icing
With the Pink Icing blueberry, you may enjoy luscious, fresh blueberries straight from your own backyard. This unusual blueberry shrub has gorgeous pink foliage that stands atop blue and green leaves in the spring.
Colors like blue, purple, and even turquoise are hard to beat in the cooler months. This dwarf blueberry doubles as a superb landscape shrub because of its compact, rounded form and vibrant color. Pink Icing looks great in containers and makes a nice hedge. The Pink Icing Blueberry is pest and disease resistant, as well as cold and heat tolerant.
The Pink Icing Blueberry is a beautiful landscape shrub with tasty fruit! What else could you ask for? With this tasty and attractive blueberry plant, you can enjoy huge, delicious berries. This is a low-maintenance and self-pollinating hardy blueberry. Pink Icing has a beautiful foliage color and is semi-evergreen.
Pink Icing is ideal for compact spaces and containers, growing to be 3 to 4 feet tall and wide when fully grown. It is the only semi-evergreen blueberry shrub we’ve come across! It preserves its leaves for considerably longer than other types, and in warmer climates, it can even keep them all year. This is just another reason why this shrub is ideal as a landscape decorative!
7. Pink Popcorn
Pink Popcorn Blueberry is a tough northern high bush blueberry that grows more compactly than other varieties and provides pink fruit that ripens early and lasts until the middle of the season. The cream to pink berries have a darker pink blush and have a real blueberry flavor and scent.
Pink Popcorn, which grows to a mature size of 5’H x 5’W, can be planted in rows or simply blended into the landscape, where its leaves provide red fall color.
Pink Popcorn is self-fertile, but if planted near another early-season variety, it will yield a bigger crop of berries. Like all blueberries, it likes acidic soil with plenty of rainfall.
8. Powderblue
Powderblue Blueberry is a Rabbiteye type of blueberry bush. Due to its robust growth patterns and capacity to resist heat, rabbiteye blueberry bushes are particularly suited to growing in the Southeastern United States. This type of blueberry bush is simple to maintain because it requires little maintenance and has minimal pest problems.
The Powderblue Blueberry’s name comes from the powder blue hue that the berries develop as they ripen. With a late-ripening season, it is one of the toughest blueberry plants. The Powderblue blueberry bush has an upright growth habit and can grow to be 8-12 feet tall and wide. Late spring blooms are followed by a late summer crop. Blueberries are medium in size, firm, and juicy with a sweet flavor.
9. Sunshine Blue
Sunshine Blue has it all when it comes to gardens, from San Diego to Seattle. This semi-dwarf, evergreen blueberry produces enormous bunches of tasty berries with stunning hot pink blossoms that fade to white in the spring.
Sunshine Blue is a self-pollinating blueberry that tolerates higher pH soils better than many other blueberries. It is suitable for Southern California because of the low chilling requirement of 150 hours, but we found it to be unexpectedly cold-hardy and a lovely addition to patios and gardens in the Pacific Northwest.
In the fall, the upright, compact bush reaches 3′ tall with blue-green and crimson foliage. These berries come with a medium sweetness and a deep flavor.
Delicious Blueberries can be grown in a pot or in the garden and will keep well refrigerated or frozen. When fully ripe, yields can reach 6-9 kilograms per plant. It grows best in full sun to part shade and needs acidic soil to thrive.
10. Top Hat
With a half-high growth habit, you can expect ‘Top Hat’ to reach a total height of 18-24 inches at maturity, with a spread of 1-2 feet, according to its development at Michigan State University. Its leathery green leaves change colors of bronze in the fall, and it blooms with white flowers in the spring.
These little plants are suitable for limited places and may be grown in pots; some gardeners have even tried cutting this variety into a tidy ornamental bonsai! ‘Top Hat’ can be used as a border plant as well.
Plants in the ‘Top Hat’ family may tolerate partial shade and grow at a medium rate in well-drained soil; however, they prefer full sun.
This self-pollinating dwarf cultivar may be grown on its own, and despite its diminutive stature, it yields full-size berries in July and August.
11. Tifblue
The Rabbiteye family includes the Tifblue Blueberry. These blueberries are native to the southern United States and are popular in home gardens due to their disease resistance, heat tolerance, and drought tolerance. According to the Texas Agrilife Extension Service, the Tifblue Blueberry Bush is “the most uniformly superb Rabbiteye blueberry.”
In the Rabbiteye family, the Tifblue is the most cold-hardy blueberry shrub. It has the potential to produce a tremendous quantity of blueberries, reaching a height and width of 6-8 feet. White blossoms appear in mid-to-late-March, with mature berries appearing in mid-to-late-June. The foliage has a glossy green texture and a gorgeous crimson fall hue. Tifblue blueberries range in size from tiny to medium and have a tangy flavor until completely mature.
Because of its enormous size, the Tifblue Blueberry bush creates an excellent hedge. It can be used as a screening plant, planted in clusters, or as a single specimen in the garden. When harvest season arrives, it will undoubtedly bring delight to all. If you live in an area where this bush isn’t suitable for planting, put it in a lovely pot and bring it inside when the weather becomes too cold.
12. Woodard
Woodard Blueberry is one of the most popular Rabbiteye types, and it’s still one of the best! It’s one of the earliest blueberries to bear fruit, requiring only 350 chill hours (Chill Hours are the number of hours under 45 degrees that a plant needs to produce fruit).
Early in the spring, this shrub is covered in white bell-shaped blossoms. Then, in late spring to early summer, medium to large dark blue blueberries mature. This fruit is chock-full of antioxidants and delicious. You may feel good about giving your family fresh fruit from your own garden every year!
The leaf is bluish-green in color and has a faint sheen. In the fall, before shedding its leaves for the winter, the foliage becomes an orange-red color. This variety is naturally heat-tolerant, making it ideal for cultivation in the southern United States. It grows to be 5-6 feet tall and 5-6 feet broad when fully grown.
13. Climax Blueberry
The Climax Blueberry is a blueberry shrub that bears a high output of huge, black blueberries early in the season. The Climax Blueberry shrub will be covered in tiny white and pink blossoms from February until early March. Climax blueberry bushes can grow to be enormous. The Climax blueberry bush, which may reach a height of 6-8 feet, will provide a lot of blueberries year after year.
In the southern growing region, the Climax blueberry shrub will produce ripe fruit from May to June. The Climax Blueberry plant may be grown in a variety of conditions, from partial shade to full sun; however, full sun is suggested for the best fruit harvest. If you’re planting in full sun, make sure the plant gets plenty of water, so the soil doesn’t dry out.
Many blueberry types are self-fruiting, but the Climax Blueberry necessitates cross-pollination in order to bear fruit. Some suggestions for the most successful cross-pollinators are included below. Blueberries are considered a superfood. Blueberries are a terrific snack that are high in vitamin C, antioxidants, and low in calories. They are also a great source of fiber.
14. Northland Blueberry
Northland Blueberry is produced largely for its beautiful fruit. From early to mid-summer, it produces an abundance of gorgeous blueberries. In mid-spring, it produces tiny clusters of white bell-shaped blooms with shell pink undertones that hang below the branches.
Throughout the year, it has green foliage. In the fall, the glossy oval leaves turn a brilliant orange. The landscape is given an additional dimension by the smooth yellow bark. This plant is primarily planted for decorative purposes, but it also has edible properties.
15. Spartan Blueberry
In mid-spring, Spartan Blueberry produces exquisite clusters of white bell-shaped flowers that emerge from characteristic red flower buds and hang below the branches. Throughout the year, it has green foliage.
In the fall, the glossy oval leaves turn a brilliant orange. In the early summer, it produces an abundance of gorgeous blueberries. The tan bark is smooth and lends a unique dimension to the environment.
This is a multi-stemmed shrub that grows straight and spreads out. Its texture blends into the environment, although it can be effectively adjusted by one or two finer or coarser trees or plants. This is a low-maintenance plant that looks best when not pruned, though it will withstand it. It’s a great way to attract birds to your yard. It doesn’t have any substantial drawbacks.
Spartan Blueberry will reach a height of 6 feet tall and a spread of 5 feet when fully grown. It is good for planting under power lines since it is a little leggy, with a usual clearance of 1 foot from the ground. It has a medium growth rate and can live for about 30 years under optimal conditions. This type requires a separate selection of the same species growing nearby.
Final Varieties
As you can see, there are several varieties of blueberries that you can consider planting. Each is unique in flavor so consider planting a few variations in your garden and try them once they’ve grown.
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