COMPANION PLANTS

A large growing blueberry from the temperate rainforests in the Sino-Himalaya. Beautiful glossy and reticulated blue-green foliage. The undersides of the leaves are coated with a bright white wax as are the clusters of dark blue-black “blueberries”. Worth growing for foliage alone, a superb addition to gardens in mild climates or in a container. One of my all-time favorite plants.  

This is an evergreen blueberry native to the slopes of the Himalaya Mountains. Typical blueberry flowers of white flushed pink that form actual blueberries. The truly outstanding ornamental feature of this dwarf shrub is the strong bluish cast to the foliage and new growth – quite striking. Great in sun or the woodland garden and perfect with rhododendrons. This form selected for its particularly blue foliage. 

A very dwarf and extremely compact form of the Pacific Northwest native evergreen huckleberry. Identical to the typical large shrub commonly seen along the coast and in forests but much, much smaller and slower growing. Bright red new growth. Easy in cultivation, this plant is tolerant of sun and even dry shade once established.

The Lingonberry is an evergreen blueberry that forms a very dwarf and compact shrub with tiny (one-half inch long or so) leaves adorning the slowly creeping stems. The leaves are smooth and deep glossy green and the small urn-shaped flowers are white flushed pink in short racemes at the ends of the stems followed by clusters of “cranberry-like” bright red “blueberries” in summer. This is a widespread and common species throughout the alpine and tundra regions of the Northern Hemisphere. My own collection of this species representing a particularly fine form I found in the Canadian Rockies.

This is basically a dwarf and prostrate form of the somewhat more familiar V. nummularia that we have offered many times over the years. This species is much less common in the wild and virtually unknown in cultivation (this is the first introduction). It has similar small rounded and shiny leaves, but they are quite a bit smaller than those of nummularia and produced on prostrate (or pendulous in a hanging basket!), slowly spreading stems. Used as a groundcover in the Rutherford Conservatory, but great as a container plant. Flowers similar to those of V. nummularia. In the wild, this grows on the sides of mossy boulders and hanging from the trunks of trees. Native to the Yunnan/Myanmar frontier. Small black “blueberries” in late summer. 

This is basically a dwarf, creeping, and prostrate form of the somewhat more familiar V. nummularia that we have offered many times over the years. This particular collection, however, is quite distinct from any other collection of this species in that it is quite upright in habit, albeit with the same tiny, glossy, rounded leaves and hairy stems which slowly run underground to form a very slowly spreading specimen. A favorite for containers. Flowers similar to those of V. nummularia – white flushed pink and urceolate in shape. Small black “blueberries” in late summer.