Bearberry

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows slowly, a few inches a year in our growth estimator. It makes a flat mat 6 inches to a foot high, and one plant spreads 3 to 6 feet across or more, its stems rooting along the ground. It is long-lived. A stem from Russian Lapland counted at least 80 annual rings, and older plants may exist. The glossy, paddle-shaped leaves, about an inch long, turn bronze or reddish purple in winter.

Small, waxy, urn-shaped flowers, white tinged with pink, nod in clusters from April to June. Native bees work them, and hummingbirds take their nectar. The berries ripen red in August and September, about a third of an inch across, and often hang on until March. Bears, grouse, wild turkeys, songbirds, deer and small mammals eat them. It is a host plant of the hoary elfin and brown elfin butterflies.

In North America it ranges from Labrador to Alaska and south to Virginia, northern Illinois, New Mexico and California. Its home is sand dunes, sandy pine barrens, rocky slopes and ledges, and open pine woods.

How to grow Bearberry

Bearberry needs full sun or light shade and a dry to moderately moist, sandy or gritty soil that drains fast. It wants acid soil, about pH 4.5 to 5.5, and it grows well in poor ground. Once established it takes drought, salt spray and road salt. It will not take wet or poorly drained soil, and it does poorly where summers are hot and humid. Set plants 2 feet apart, or a foot apart for a quicker carpet, and keep them 3 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship potted. Bearberry resents root disturbance, so plant it from the pot in spring or fall and keep the root ball whole. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep any mulch clear of the stems. Bearberry is slow and uncertain from seed. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, three-quarters of an inch deep, and expect seedlings the second spring. For a spring sowing, keep the damp seed warm for 60 to 120 days, then in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days first.

Water it every day for the first two weeks after planting, then every two to three days until week 12. After that, water weekly through the first two summers if rain is short. Before each watering, push a finger a few inches into the soil, and wait if it is still wet. Do not fertilize it, since feeding speeds the weeds as well. Keep weeds pulled until the mat closes over.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. On poorly drained ground or where summers run hot, it is open to root rot, black mildew, leaf gall, leaf spot and rust. It is a host of yellow witches' broom, a disease that also strikes spruces. The berries are edible but mealy and tasteless.