Blueberries are the favorite berry of all Americans, and they are surely our national fruit. Eating blueberries is a popular pastime but growing them yourself can be tricky. At least it was, until the arrival of the Bushel & Berry® Blueberry Buckle. This compact variety is uniquely suited to container growing, and throughout the warmer states it is perfect for anyone wanting to ‘grow your own’. Imagine stepping outside your door and picking a cup of berries in moments, to scatter on cereal or to bake into pancakes and muffins – it’s pure heaven for berry lovers. This unique hybrid variety is so neat and compact it looks like a boxwood plant growing outside your door, but it will be smothered in berries in summer, after a beautiful display of red new shoots in spring, clusters of white hanging blossoms, and rich fall colors. It’s so beautiful you will want it just for its ornamental value in any garden, but it’s so useful too, with berries you will love, that there is no way your garden can be without this fabulous new plant.

Growing the Bushel & Berry® Blueberry Buckle

Size and Appearance

Bushel & Berry® Blueberry Buckle is a fast-growing small deciduous shrub, reaching 2 or 3 feet tall and wide, with a dense, bushy habit. The strong, flexible stems resist breaking, and hold up their crop of berries well. The small, glossy leaves look like boxwood, and they are red in spring, rich green in summer, and turn powerful shades of purple-red in fall.

In spring, clusters of white flowers appear at the ends of all the branches. There are about 30 blossoms in each cluster, staying in bloom for at least a week. The flowers are small, with a red base and white petals, hanging like upside down bells, with a narrow mouth. Once the blossoms fade they become small green berries, with no need for another plant to pollinate them. The berries ripen around mid-May in zone 10 and up to a month later in cooler zones. These tasty berries have the classic blueberry color and whitish powder dusting. They are a little smaller than some other varieties, but very abundant. Eat them fresh or in baked goods or place them unwashed straight into the freezer for easy storage.

Using the Bushel & Berry® Blueberry Buckle in Your Garden

You will love the convenience of having your own blueberry bushes outside the door, and we highly recommend this variety for container growing. If you don’t have the necessary acidic soil in your garden, container growing is a simple and easy solution to that. The compact appearance and decorative flowers of this bush makes it perfect even for a formal patio, when planted in a container. If you have suitable soil it can also be planted in the garden, among flowering shrubs, or even planted as an edging, looking like boxwood, but with the big bonus of producing a wonderful berry crop.

Hardiness

The Blueberry Buckle bush is hardy in the ground all the way from zone 10 into zone 4. It is not reliably winter hardy in a pot or planter beyond zone 6. In zones 4 and 5 container plants can be stored over the winter months in an unheated building once the leaves have fallen. This will usually give sufficient protection for good winter survival.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

Grow your Blueberry Buckle bush in full sun. For successful growth the soil needs to be acidic, with a pH value of 5.5 or less. The soil should be rich in organic material and be careful to use lime-free additives when preparing the ground. For container-growing, plant in potting soil blended for acid-loving plants. This variety is more drought resistant than other blueberries. It can even tolerate a few days of dryness in a planter, that would kill most other blueberry bushes, if you are away and it doesn’t get watered.

Maintenance and Pruning

No particular care or pruning is needed for the Blueberry Buckle bush, because its compact habit keeps it neat. You can trim longer stems for neatness in late winter, if desired. This variety shows good resistance to common leaf diseases of blueberry bushes, and it is normally unbothered by insect pests. Plants in containers should be fertilized with liquid fertilizer blended for acid loving plants like azaleas. Feed from early spring to late spring. Water regularly for the best results, whenever the soil begins to show any surface dryness.

History and Origin of the Bushel & Berry® Blueberry Buckle

The Blueberry Buckle bush is a hybrid blueberry, believed to be a natural cross between Vaccinium myrsinites, the shiny blueberry, and Vaccinium corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry. The shiny blueberry grows all through the southeast, in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. The northern highbush blueberry grows from eastern Canada through the east and south of the USA, as far as Florida and parts of Texas. Blueberry Buckle was found as a seedling growing among a plantation of those two varieties at Ornamental Plants & Trees, in Hawthorne, Florida, home of the specialist blueberry breeder David Dickerson. It was patented in 2012 with the name ‘Corablue’. With the name Blueberry Buckle it is one of the new berry bushes in the Bushel & Berry® range, put together by Star® Roses and Plants as a ‘garden friendly’ range for smaller gardens and container growing.

Buying the Bushel & Berry® Blueberry Buckle at The Tree Center

We are very excited to be able to bring you the Bushel & Berry® range, which allows you to grow a wide variety of berries right in your own garden, even if you have very limited space available. We know you will love the Blueberry Buckle bush – it’s so easy and so much fun to grow. These plants are in huge demand, and we can hardly keep them on the farm. Order now, because we will be sold out before you can say, “Blueberry Buckle Bush”.