Description
The ornamental patio blueberries are bought for their leaves, and most of them hand back a small handful of berries for the trouble. Pink Icing is the one that does both jobs. It carries the largest berry and the biggest crop in the series, about four pounds from a three year old plant, ripening from the middle of July into the first week of August.
The leaf is the other half of it. New growth runs pink over blue green foliage right through spring and summer rather than colouring once at bud break, and the whole plant turns lavender in fall. The berries stay the ordinary blue of any blueberry.
About five hundred chill hours and zones 6 to 8. Full sun and a peat based acid mix with no lime in it, or the leaf colour flattens and the plant slowly declines.
Overview
- The patio blueberry to take when you want fruit as well as foliage.
- Largest berry and biggest crop of the ornamental series: 1.49 g and about four pounds at three years.
- Thirty inches by two feet, mounded; give it a large container.
- Ripens mid July into the first week of August.
- Pink new growth over blue green foliage, lavender in fall, blue berries.
- Mildly sweet rather than sharp.
- About five hundred chill hours, zones 6 to 8.
- Self-fertile, with better cropping alongside a partner.
- Full sun; the foliage colour fades in shade.
Growing Details
Latin Name: Vaccinium corymbosum ‘Pink Icing’
Site and Soil: Full sun; acidic, freely draining ground or a peat based ericaceous mix at pH 4.5 to 5.0, with no lime and no dolomite in it
Hardiness: USDA zones 6 to 8 on the breeding record; the zones 5 to 10 quoted in brand copy is not supported by it
Size and Habit: About thirty inches tall with a two foot canopy, mounded and round, throwing about six new canes a year
Chill Requirement: About five hundred hours at or below 45 F
Foliage: Pink new growth over blue green leaves through spring and summer, turning lavender in fall; it held its leaves through winter in the breeder’s Oregon plantings, which is a mild climate observation rather than a promise
Fruit: Blue, averaging 1.49 g, firm and mildly sweet; about four pounds from a three year old plant
Ripening Time: Mid July into the first week of August
Pollination: Self-fertile; a second blueberry flowering at the same time increases berry size and crop
Propagation: Grown on its own roots from cuttings; protected by US Plant Patent 23,336, so it may not be propagated
Pests and Diseases: Birds are the main loss on a plant this small and a pot is easy to net; root rot in a wet or heavy medium is what kills container blueberries
Additional Notes
- Grower’s Insight: It is the only plant in the ornamental series carrying enough fruit to be worth netting, and it throws about six new canes a year on a thirty inch frame, so it outgrows the pot people buy for a patio blueberry a season or two before its siblings do.
- Regional Insight: About five hundred chill hours and zones 6 to 8 place it in the mild middle of the country, the mid-Atlantic, the upper Southeast, the interior valleys of California and the maritime Northwest; the zones 5 to 10 span quoted for it is brand copy, and a Zone 5 buyer is being sold a range the breeding record does not carry.
- Pink Icing is protected by US Plant Patent 23,336. Propagation is prohibited while the patent runs.
- Explore more blueberries in our collection: Blueberries
