Some like them small and some like them big – that’s blueberries we’re talking about. If you are a lover of big, sweet, juicy blueberries popped straight into your mouth you are going to adore the Bushel & Berry® Pink Icing® Blueberry. The bush is covered in clusters of big, blue, berries in July, ready for picking. A single bush gives over 4 pounds of berries within 3 years of planting, with more to come as it grows and matures. These berries have the classic taste of wild blueberries, tangy and yet sweet, and the are covered with the gray dusty ‘bloom’ that all the best varieties have. But there is more. The foliage of this bush is so ornamental over the seasons that you will love growing it right among your flowering shrubs, or in planters on the front porch, where you can step out the door and pick berries without even going into the garden at all. The leaves on the new growth are toned in pinks and reds, and in fall the leaves turn an extraordinary shade of iridescent turquoise-lavender. The plant is evergreen, so they stay that way all winter – Talk about ‘icing on the cake’.

Growing the Bushel & Berry® Pink Icing®

Size and Appearance

The Pink Icing Blueberry Bush is a compact, rounded evergreen shrub that grows to 2½ feet tall and 2 feet wide within a few years. In time it may reach 4 feet tall, with a neat, mounded habit. It produces abundant new stems from the lower parts, keeping productive branches coming and coming. The 2-inch leaves are glossy and oval, with a smooth surface. They create a dense bush, and when you aren’t admiring the berries you will be admiring the leaves. New shoots come after the spring flowering is over, and the new leaves are flushed with shades of pinks and reds when they first develop. They mature to a rich and satisfying green for the summer, and then in fall they turn a unique and remarkable color – a glowing blue somewhere between turquoise and lavender. This striking tone carried through the winter, before being replaced by the pinks and reds of the new leaves.

The flowers develop early, in late February or March, depending on your zone. They are on short twigs that sprout from the stems, with 6 or 7 creamy-white hanging flowers, with a light scent. These develop into clusters of green and then pink berries, which ripen and turn blue-black by July and into August. The berries are large – well over ½ inch in diameter – with a delicious ‘wild’ flavor you will love. Within 3 years you should be gathering 4 lbs. of berries from a single bush, and even more as it matures. Now you can enjoy the pleasure of picking ripe berries from your garden, scattering them on your cereal, eating them in a fruit salad, or baking them into delicious pancakes, muffins or pies.

Using the Bushel & Berry® Pink Icing® in Your Garden

With its beautiful changes of foliage color, white blooms and clusters of navy-blue berries, the Pink Icing Blueberry bush is plenty attractive enough to grow in any garden bed. If you don’t have suitable soil it is compact, so it makes a decorative potted plant on your terrace or patio, or even on a balcony if you have no garden at all.

Hardiness

The Pink Icing Blueberry bush is a warm zone variety, with a low chill requirement to develop its flowers of only 500 hours below 45 degrees. This means it grows perfectly from zone 6 to 8, and it should also receive enough cold to grow in zone 9. In zone 5 it may be deciduous, but still grow well.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

The Pink Icing Blueberry will grow best in full sun, which will develop the foliage colors best, encourage lots of blooming, and ripen the berries. The soil should be rich and moist, as blueberries have a low tolerance for drought. The soil must be acidic, with a pH value of 5.5 of less. If you don’t have a suitable soil, this bush is easy to grow in planters or pots, using potting soil for acid-loving plants. Add some shredded pine bark to the soil and use more as mulch over the surface of your pot. Water with rain water if you can.

Maintenance and Pruning

Always keep the soil around your plants, or in pots, moist, but make sure your pots have drainage holes and don’t leave them standing in water. Use a shrub fertilizer for acid-loving bushes just before blooming and in early summer. Detailed pruning is not needed for this easy-care bush, and it rarely suffers from any serious pests or diseases.

History and Origin of the Bushel & Berry® Pink Icing®

The Pink Icing Blueberry is a carefully-bred variety of the northern highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum, which grows wild all across the north-eastern states. David Brazelton and Adam Wagner are skilled breeders at Fall Creek Farm and Nursery, Inc., in Lowell, Oregon, one of America’s most successful commercial developers of new varieties of blueberries. To develop this one they crossed together earlier bushes they had created, involving three existing varieties called `Toro`, `Earliblue`, and `Ivanhoe`. In 2013 they patented it with the official name of `ZF06-079` and it has now been released as Pink Icing®, part of the Bushel & Berry® range of fruit bushes for home growers created by Star® Roses and Plants.

Buying the Bushel & Berry® Pink Icing® at The Tree Center

We love the new blueberry bushes in the Bushel & Berry® range, because they offer so much for home gardeners who love their berries. There is one for every need, and if you love big, tasty berries, attractive foliage, and you live in warmer zones, then Pink Icing is for you. Order some now and look forward to all that tasty goodness, but do it right away, because our stock is limited, and we can’t keep up with the demand for these great new bushes.