These are the blueberries you find in cans on supermarket shelves. When fresh, the fruits are sweet and covered with a waxy bloom so thick that the berries appear sky blue or gray. The creeping plants, a foot or so high, are spread by underground stems, or rhizomes. They blanket the rocky upland soils of the Northeast and adjacent portions of Canada. Lowbush blueberries make a nice ornamental fruiting ground cover.
Plants sold by nurseries are usually seedlings or unnamed wild plants, rather than named varieties.
H ALF-HIGH . Breeders have combined qualities of highbush and lowbush blueberries into hybrids known as half-high blueberries. Blueberries are partially self-fertile, so you will harvest more and larger berries by planting two or more varieties. Planting more than one variety can also extend the harvest season, providing blueberries to combine with raspberries in pies, then later with peaches in cobblers. Some varieties even ripen as late as autumn apples.