Blueberry for me, finally

Every spring one of the first plants I see in almost every garden center is blueberries. Even Home Depot, with its sometimes neglected and rarely surprising garden department has a selection of blueberry varieties on its still mostly-empty plant racks. So every year I've considered planting blueberries. I'd research each of the varieties available, then get caught up in the details: which is best, how large would the bush get, where would I plant it, how would I keep critters from eating the berries, and so on.

Before I know it my head is spinning and I give up, and another year goes by without blueberries. Not this year. This year I didn't think too much, gave in to impulse -- if you can call it that -- and bought one of the nice plants one of the local nurseries had on display.

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I chose the 'Northland' variety:

I'm not sure why I debated for so many years which would be the "best" variety. Any variety is better than none, right?

I'm pretty sure these are budding too early, so were probably grown somewhere a bit warmer or have been in a greenhouse:

One of the concerns with choosing the right variety was the earliness of the blooms. Too early and they can be zapped by a late freeze. I'm not worried about that though, because I've decided to plant this in a pot -- at least for a few years.

I'll just set it into this pot first to see if the size is right and if the pot complements the plant:

It looks good on both counts, so time to plant! A small square of screen covers the hole to prevent the soil from washing out and insects from getting in:

Yep, this is one of the pots I got on clearance last fall.

Blueberries need acidic soil so I'm going to add some sulphur to the potting mix to acidify it:

Another benefit of growing in a container: it's easier to control the soil pH.

So with this plant in a container I can: 1) move it into the garage if a late freeze threatens the tender foliage or blossoms, 2) easily amend the soil to acidify it, 3) try it in different spots of my yard to find out where it will suffer the least amount of critter damage.

Plus I get to enjoy a nice-looking new plant in a new pot -- an attractive combo!

I've read that 'Northland' is a self-fertile variety of blueberry, which means that you don't need another plant to cross-fertilize for fruit production. They do say that having a different variety that blooms at the same time will result in larger berries and a greater yield, but if I don't get another variety this year at least I've taken the first step and actually have a blueberry bush now.

Even if I get only a few small berries this summer, that will be more than I've ever harvested before, and that's pretty exciting!

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