Group/Class:  Highbush Blueberry

Description:

A hardy dwarf variety with sweetly-flavored light blue fruit in early mid-season and pretty bell-shaped flowers, bushy and compact with a lovely red fall color; blueberries need highly acidic soil, perfect drainage and mulch; plant with peat moss

Ornamental Features

Top Hat Blueberry is primarily grown for its highly ornamental fruit. It features an abundance of magnificent blue berries in early summer. It features dainty clusters of white bell-shaped flowers with shell pink overtones hanging below the branches in mid spring, which emerge from distinctive red flower buds. It has bluish-green deciduous foliage. The glossy oval leaves turn an outstanding red in the fall.

This plant is primarily grown as an ornamental, but it's also valued for its edible qualities. The round sweet berries are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Cooking
• Baking
• Preserves

Landscape Attributes

Top Hat Blueberry is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and usually looks its best without pruning, although it will tolerate pruning. It is a good choice for attracting birds to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Top Hat Blueberry is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• General Garden Use
• Orchard/Edible Landscaping

Planting & Growing

Top Hat Blueberry will grow to be about 18 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 18 inches. It tends to be a little leggy, with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 30 years. This variety requires a different selection of the same species growing nearby in order to set fruit.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It may require supplemental watering during periods of drought or extended heat. It is very fussy about its soil conditions and must have sandy, acidic soils to ensure success, and is subject to chlorosis (yellowing) of the foliage in alkaline soils. It is quite intolerant of urban pollution, therefore inner city or urban streetside plantings are best avoided, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selection of a native North American species.