# Rabbiteye Blueberry (Vaccinium virgatum)

> The tall blueberry of Southern gardens, with white or pink bells in spring and sweet blue berries through summer, tougher in heat and drought than highbush.

Also called Vaccinium ashei, smallflower blueberry. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/rabbiteye-blueberry/

![Rabbiteye blueberry (Vaccinium virgatum) branches hung with berries ripening from pink to blue](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/rabbiteye-blueberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: 小石川人晃, CC BY-SA 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AVaccinium_virgatum_'Brightwell'_at_Tsukuba_Botanical_Garden_03.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 6 to 15 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 9
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, sandy barrens, stream banks and the forest understory
- Native range: 9 states, north to North Carolina, south to Florida and west to Texas (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Edible, Wildlife value, Showy flowers
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Rabbiteye blueberry is the blueberry of Southern farms and gardens, a many-stemmed native that is less fussy about soil pH than highbush blueberry but less cold hardy. Seedlings vary, so berry size and ripening time differ from plant to plant. The farm rabbiteye, long called Vaccinium ashei, is often treated as this species, though a 2024 study keeps the two apart. Plant a row of them as a fruiting hedge in full sun and acid soil.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Most bushes reach full size in 7 to 8 years, so our growth estimator gives it the medium rate, about a foot and a half a year. A mature bush stands 6 to 15 feet tall and about 10 feet wide, with many stems from the base.

White or pink bells open from March to May. The berries ripen from June into August, black or dusted blue. They ripen unevenly in each cluster, so picking runs four to six weeks. Cedar waxwings, robins and crows all feed on them.

It is native to the Coastal Plain of the Southeast, from North Carolina to Florida and west to Texas and Arkansas. Wild plants grow in river bottoms, pine flatwoods, hammocks and dry woods.

## How to grow Rabbiteye Blueberry

Rabbiteye blueberry wants full sun, at least four to five hours a day, and fruits poorly near hardwood trees, though pines suit it. It needs an acid soil, pH 4.0 to 5.5, that drains well, and sandy soil suits it best. Avoid heavy clay and wet spots, where root rot can kill it. Set plants 6 feet apart and keep them 20 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant bare-root saplings in late winter or early spring and potted ones in fall or winter, at the depth they grew. Work a little acid peat into each hole, and mulch 3 to 6 inches deep with pine bark or pine straw, clear of the stems. Rabbiteye 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 through the first two summers, since the young roots are shallow. Use water low in lime and salt, because hard or salty water kills the root fungi the plant depends on. Pick off the flowers the first year so the plant builds roots and shoots. Feed lightly two or three times a year, never in one heavy dose. From the fourth or fifth year, cut out one to three of the oldest canes in late winter, and top tall bushes after harvest.

Rabbiteyes set little fruit with their own pollen, so plant two or more seedlings from different parents for a crop. Plants may bear 2 to 5 pounds each by the third or fourth year after planting, and mature bushes give 15 pounds or more. Birds take the berries, so net the bushes as they ripen. Watch for mummy berry, gray mold on the flowers in wet springs, and blueberry maggot.

## Sources

- [UF/IFAS Extension, EDIS CIR1192/MG359: Blueberry Gardener's Guide, Williamson and Phillips](https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/MG359)
- [UF/IFAS Extension Gardening Solutions: Blueberries](https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/fruits/blueberries/)
- [UF/IFAS Extension Gardening Solutions: Florida's Edible Native Plants](https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/floridas-edible-native-plants/)
- [Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home and Garden Information Center: Blueberry, Polomski, Reighard and Williamson, updated March 28, 2023](https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/blueberry/)
- [NC State Extension: Growing Blueberries in the Home Garden](https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/growing-blueberries-in-the-home-garden)
- [Texas A&M AgriLife Extension E-603: Blueberries, Nesbitt, Kamas and Stein](https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/04/blueberries_2015.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Vaccinium chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Vaccinium.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Vaccinium virgatum](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=VAVI2)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Vaccinium virgatum, from Bean](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/vaccinium/vaccinium-virgatum/)
- [Fritsch, Crowl and Manos 2024, Vaccinium virgatum (Ericaceae): a species to be recognized, Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas 18(2)](https://doi.org/10.17348/jbrit.v18.i2.1366)
- [Khalid, Benevenuto, Lyrene and Munoz 2025, Interspecific hybridization history of Vaccinium berry crops and potential in wild relatives, Horticulture Research 12: uhaf246](https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhaf246)
- [USDA PLANTS: Vaccinium virgatum](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/VAVI2)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Vaccinium virgatum](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.161410/Vaccinium_virgatum)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Vaccinium corymbosum, where the address for V. virgatum leads](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/vaccinium-corymbosum/)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for insects: the beetles, wasps, cicadas and fireflies that everything else eats](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-insects/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for butterflies and moths: host plants first, nectar second](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-butterflies-and-moths/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Rabbiteye Blueberry, add ?species=rabbiteye-blueberry with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=rabbiteye-blueberry&zone=7&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Rabbiteye Blueberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=rabbiteye-blueberry): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=rabbiteye-blueberry
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Rabbiteye Blueberry is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=rabbiteye-blueberry
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Rabbiteye Blueberry needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=rabbiteye-blueberry:2
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Rabbiteye Blueberry flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.