Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

Help us grow by giving to the Plant Database Fund or by becoming a member

Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Search Smarty Plants

See a list of all Smarty Plants questions

Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

rate this answer

Not Yet Rated

Sunday - April 29, 2012

From: Kernersville, NC
Region: Southeast
Topic: Diseases and Disorders, Pests, Edible Plants, Shrubs
Title: Problems with blueberries from Kernersville NC
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

My blueberry plants have no leaves or scrawny ones. I have 13 plants, 5 of them are like this.

ANSWER:

There are 19 species of the genus Vaccinium (blueberry) in our Native Plant Database; we tried to narrow it down by selecting those native to North Carolina, which gave us 3: Vaccinium corymbosum (Highbush blueberry), Vaccinium fuscatum (Black highbush blueberry) and Vaccinium pallidum (Blue ridge blueberry).

The first thing we usually think of when a plant is leggy or scrawny is whether there is enough sunlight for that plant. However, we checked all three webpages and determine that blueberries all can thrive in sun, part shade or shade. So that doesn't appear to be the issue.

Since we have no personal experience with blueberries, we went hunting for some information from people who do. The first we would refer you to is from About.com: Gardening Pruning Blueberries and Blueberry Pests and Diseases. The main thing we took away from that is the need for regular pruning, especially of damaged or scrawny branches.

The second article has more to do with large-scale industrial blueberry production, but does seem to have some good suggestions. From North Carolina State University Blueberry Pest Management.

And, finally How To Grow Blueberries from Dummies.com. Sorry.

From the Image Gallery

Black highbush blueberry
Vaccinium fuscatum