Photo: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Hillside Blueberry

Vaccinium pallidum

Also called Blue Ridge blueberry, early lowbush blueberry, dryland blueberry, Vaccinium vacillans.

A low wild blueberry of dry, rocky hillsides that spreads into colonies, with sweet blue berries in summer and scarlet leaves in fall.

EdibleWildlife valueFall colorDrought tolerant

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 1–3 ft
USDA zones: 5–9
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Dry uplands, rocky ground, sandy barrens, the Appalachians, old fields and edges
Native range: 30 states and the District of Columbia, north to Minnesota, south to Georgia and west to Kansas
List all 31
Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia
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Hillside blueberry is one variable species that takes in the plants older books call Vaccinium vacillans. Fire suits it. It sprouts back from its underground stems after a burn, and fire is widely used to renew a colony that has stopped bearing. Its berries ripen a few at a time over several weeks, which makes them hard to gather in quantity, yet they have been picked for market in Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and West Virginia. Grow it as a fruiting ground cover on a dry, sunny bank or under open oaks and pines.

Size, growth and what to expect

Hillside blueberry grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. Most stems stand 9 to 21 inches tall, spreading by underground stems into colonies.

Greenish white to pink bells hang in tight clusters from March to May. The sweet berries, dull blue to black and a quarter to half an inch across, ripen from June into August. Wild turkeys, ruffed grouse, bluebirds, catbirds, black bears, foxes and chipmunks eat them.

It grows from Minnesota and Maine south to Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas, most abundantly on the Allegheny Plateau. Its home is dry, rocky hillsides and ridges, sandy knolls, shale barrens, open oak and pine woods, and old fields.

How to grow Hillside Blueberry

Hillside blueberry does best in full sun, and it takes the part shade of open oak and pine woods. It wants an acid soil that drains well, sandy, gravelly or rocky, and once rooted it takes drought. It will not survive in alkaline soil. Set plants 3 feet apart and keep them 2 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch with pine straw or oak leaves, clear of the stems. The seed is small and needs light to sprout. Keep the dry seed in the refrigerator for about 90 days. Then sow it on the surface of a moist, acid mix, uncovered, in light.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short, then only in a long drought. Deer and rabbits browse the twigs, so cage young plants where they are common. When an old colony bears less, cut it to the ground in late winter, and it sprouts back from its underground stems.

A colony from one plant is a single clone, and blueberries set more fruit with pollen from another plant, so plant two or more seedlings from different parents. It is susceptible to blueberry stunt disease.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (12)