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Blackberry shrubs growing along stone wall

Southern Living Plants Make the Landscape ‘Berrylicious’

  1. Home
  2. Southern Living Plants Make the Landscape ‘Berrylicious’
  • By Norman Winter
  • August 6, 2019
Edible plants like blueberries and blackberries add beauty and function

It’s time to turn over a new leaf and make your landscape ‘Berrylicious’ with Southern Living Plant Collection’s easy to grow blackberries and blueberries. You may remember picking blackberries as a child – the tasty jam, the cobblers and the bandages covering the wounds from thorns. No worries now, as ours are ‘ouch-free.’

That’s right, Southern Living Plant Collection offers three selections of the plumpest, tastiest blackberries on the market, and they are all ouch-free because they are thornless. They are also tolerant of a wide range of soil types and pH. In other words, everyone can enjoy these thornless blackberries.

Imagine a glorious spring landscape with Encore® Azaleas. But instead of partnering with spiraea, you have chosen blackberries like ‘Osage,’ ‘Navaho’ and Prime-Ark® ‘Freedom’ as companions. You’ll be reveling in long canes of white blooming rose-like flowers that bring in bees and butterflies.

With the Prime-Ark® ‘Freedom’ you’ll actually get two harvests, as this is the first blackberry to produce on new wood and well as second year wood. That’s more delicious fruit for your family to eat.

After the blooms of course, you will soon be eating the best blackberries on the planet. With the Prime-Ark ‘Freedom’ you’ll actually get two harvests, as this is the first blackberry to produce on new wood and well as second year wood. That’s more delicious fruit for your family to eat.

Perhaps you are already growing climbing roses like Cecile Brunner, Dortmund or Lady Banks. Well then, these rose-family blackberries would certainly make natural partners and they are recommended for zones 6–10.

 While Southern Living® Plant Collection blackberries are perfect for the edible landscape, what could be more natural than having rabbit eye blueberry selections whose native habitat is the south? Blueberries like Bless Your Heart™ and Takes the Cake™ are early season blueberries offering the landscape much more than you ever realized.

While Southern Living Plant Collection blackberries are perfect for the edible landscape, what could be more natural than having rabbiteye blueberry selections whose native habitat is the south? Blueberries like Bless Your Heart™ and Takes the Cake™ are early season blueberries offering the landscape much more than you ever realized.

Consider 4- to 5-foot-tall deciduous shrubs that begin spring with hundreds of delicate looking white bell or urn-shaped flowers dangling downward from all branches. The blue-green leaves emerge in stark contrast with other nearby darker green leaves.

Then the fruit begins to mature—first green, then pink, followed by blue. All of the colors are seen at once as the ripening fruit gives you a lengthy harvest. The Southern Living Plant Collection blueberries are also pest and disease resistant.

Then the fruit begins to mature on Southern Living Blueberries—first green, then pink, followed by blue

In the landscape just picture odd-numbered clusters of your blueberry plants with your favorite Encore Azalea colors. Bless Your Heart and Takes the Cake partner well for pollination. Try a cluster of these blueberries behind dwarf Encore Azaleas like the hot pink Autumn Carnival™ or the new fiery red Autumn Bonfire™. Blueberries and azaleas are actually related and grow well in the same organic-rich, acidic soil.

In addition to informal clusters with Encore Azaleas, dazzling combinations can be made with the Southern Living Plant Collection abelias like Confetti®, ‘Kaleidoscope’ or Miss Lemon™. These 4- to 5-foot-tall blueberries also allow you the opportunity to create an edible hedge or screen.

Your blueberries will require plenty of sun to produce strong growth and ripen fruit, and as mentioned above, you’ll also want to include both varieties for cross-pollination. Space your blueberries 6- to 8-feet apart in the landscape or 4-feet apart if growing as a hedge.

The landscape will become a blaze of color in the fall as both Bless Your Heart and Takes the Cake blueberry foliage transitions to shades of burgundy or copper/orange. Everything you need to know about growing, harvesting and even cooking with these Southing Living Plant Collection berries can be found on our website. We’ll see you there.

Norman Winter

Norman Winter recently retired as Director of the University of Georgia’s Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens at the Historic Bamboo Farm, in Savannah, GA. He is a sought-after garden lecturer speaking at well-known gardening events across the Southeast.
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Berry Important: Pollination, Chill Hours and Plant Food

Easy explanations to FAQs on growing blueberries

Plants Featured In The article

Blackberry

'Osage' Thornless Blackberry

Rubus hybrid ‘Osage’ PP26120
Blueberry

For Heaven's Sake® DownHome Harvest® Blueberry

Vaccinium ashei ‘Ochlockonee’ PP17300
Abelia

Miss Lemon™ Abelia

Abelia Hybrid ‘Hopleys’
Blackberry

Prime-Ark® 'Freedom' Thornless Blackberry

Prime-Ark® Freedom Rubus hybrid ‘APF-153T’ PP26990
Blueberry

Takes the Cake® DownHome Harvest® Blueberry

Vaccinium ashei ‘Vernon’ PP18291
Blueberry

Bless Your Heart® DownHome Harvest® Blueberry

Vaccinium ashei ‘Alapaha’ PP16266
Blackberry

'Navaho' Thornless Blackberry

Rubus Hybrid ‘Navaho’ PP6679
Abelia

'Kaleidoscope' Abelia

Abelia x grandiflora ‘Kaleidoscope’ PP16988

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