Many love the look of a row of small boxwood shrubs as edging around gardens. Yet in some areas the genus Buxus just doesn’t do that well. Be it winter damage, insects or the newly introduced boxwood blight, there are many locations where this shrub doesn’t thrive. Additionally, some people want that look but also care about being attentive to planting native species that will support local wildlife. The plant that meets all these gardener’s needs is a new low, round blueberry bush called Jelly Bean, from Brazel Berries.
Here’s how I know personally that these are extremely hardy shrubs: three years ago I got sample plants of the Jelly Bean blueberry at a garden writer’s meeting. I brought them home and potted them into one gallon sized containers. They then went through the next two winters, including the last very long and cold season, outdoors without protection. The Jelly Bean dwarf blueberries sailed through. A photo of these plants is below.
Here are my plants. Even though I knew that these plants were more vulnerable to cold temps in the pots, I left them outside during the coldest winter in at least 14 years. These plants haven’t blinked an eye.
