ABSTRACT
The blueberry became established in North America after latest ice age and its fruit were regarded highly by Native Americans who added them liberally to puddings, cakes, and pemmican. The highbush blueberry can be split into two subgroups—the northern highbush and the southern highbush. The former is best suited for growing in northern areas of the US where soils are acid. The rabbiteye blueberry, a southern species, has been cultivated even longer than the highbush blueberry. Important work by southern plant breeders has given us many new and improved varieties of this species, including a new group of low chill plants called “southern highbush” blueberries. Rabbiteye plants, also members of a southern species, will produce crops from Virginia south along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to Texas and inland to southern Arkansas, midland Tennessee and mountainous northern Georgia. For warmer areas, consider the southern highbush or rabbiteye blueberry, both of which are more tolerant of heat and dry soil conditions.
