Vaccinium uliginosum
Origin: Russia
Improvement status: Unknown
Seeds per packet: ~50
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
Bog bilberry is a delightful relative of the blueberry, typically considered to be a Eurasian plant, though it's native to most of Canada and parts of the US too (it has a circumboreal distribution). Bog bilberries are low-growing plants, seldom reaching more than two feet tall, but still yielding handfuls of delicious berries in the summer and showing off strikingly red foliage in the fall.
Bilberries are quite adaptable, thriving from low altitudes in the Arctic (found as far north as the northwest coast of Greenland and even farther north on Canada's frigid Ellesmere Island) to higher altitudes in western North America and New England, as well as a few places around Lake Superior in Michigan and Minnesota. It's quite common in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Scandinavia, the Swiss/Italian Alps, and cross northern Eurasia. They can even be found in the mountains outside Granada in southern Spain. The plant's preferred habitat consists of richly acidic soils found in heathland, moorland, tundra, and coniferous forest understory.
Our Russia-grown seed was imported by the good folks at Sheffield's Seeds in Locke, NY.
GROWING TIPS: Does best in Zones 5 or below, but some seedlings can likely survive a zone (or maybe even two) higher. Seeds generally require no special treatment, but should be soaked for 24 hours prior to planting. Expect slow and patchy germination. Surface sow.
