'Elliott' Blueberry

Vaccinnium corymbosum

Origin: New Jersey, via Maryland and Michigan

Improvement status: Cultivar

Seeds per packet: ~20

BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED

Life cycle: Perennial

Very few people have ever grown blueberries from seed, but almost every cultivated blueberry grown today is a clone of a plant someone started from seed — in most cases, that someone was either Frederick Coville or Elizabeth Coleman White, mentioned here and discussed in depth in our "Elizabeth Coleman White's Blueberry Breeding Mix" write-up — so we figured our intrepid customers would be interested in trying their hand at growing blueberries from seed too! And while we have a few exciting offerings this year (2025), including some closely related bilberries, the only named blueberry variety we're offering is this beloved 'Elliott' cultivar.

One of the latest-ripening highbush blueberry cultivars on the market, producing tasty berries well into September or even October (some two months after popular varieties like 'Duke'), 'Elliott' is a super-important variety for commercial blueberry growers around the country since it extends their season so considerably. Originating with a 1947 cross made by Dr. George Darrow in Maryland, 'Elliott' itself was ultimately selected from seedlings sent to Arthur Elliott in Otter Lake, Michigan, and not released commercially until 1973 (blueberry breeding is slow work!). The original cross was between the 'Burlington' variety and a variety called 'U.S. 1'. 'Burlington' is itself the result of a Frederick Coville cross between 'Rubel', a wild NJ blueberry that came out of the woods ready for commercialization, released in collaboration with the great Elizabeth Coleman White in 1912, and 'Pioneer', the very first hybrid blueberry cultivar on the market, and also a result of the Coville-White collaboration, released in 1920. 'U.S. 1' came from a cross between 'Dixi' and an unnamed cross between 'Jersey' and 'Pioneer'. With 'Pioneer' and 'Rubel' all over its ancestry, 'Elliott' is one of the most inbred blueberry cultivars out there, but it is nevertheless productive, delicious, and resilient.

Our seeds come from a commercial blueberry operation in New Jersey, so the flowers were open-pollinated by whatever bees or other pollinators visited them. Other parents may therefore include both other commercial blueberry cultivars as well as wild blueberries that may be growing nearby (since nearly all of the commercial blueberry operations in the New Jersey Pine Barrens are also surrounded by the ideal ecosystem for blueberries, and they grow wild across the region). Seeds were processed by EFN co-founder Nate Kleinman by putting the ripe fruit in a blender and then pouring off the juice, pulp, and infertile seeds. The good seeds sink to the bottom.

GROWING TIPS: Seeds are most likely to sprout following 60-90 days cold-moist stratification. We also recommend soaking the seeds for thirty minutes before beginning the stratification process. Use damp sand and/or peat moss. Plant seeds immediately after removing from the refrigerator and keep very well watered. Blueberries need acidic soil and lots of water to thrive.