When I started to get interested in cultivated blueberries, they were a speciality. The two or three Swiss blueberry pioneers were known by name; in the supermarket they appeared only sporadically and in small quantities. And when I designed a miniature bog bed in my parents' garden and planted two blueberry plants (which bore fruit for almost 25 years), these were probably the first garden blueberries on our street. And today: cultivated blueberries are everywhere; 365 days in the supermarket, and if there were more days in the year, that would be no problem! There are cultivated blueberries from here, yes, they are also available – but there are also some that come from South America, North America, Spain and Italy, New Zealand and Australia. The cultivated blueberry has quickly become a global fruit that is in no way inferior to the apple, the orange or the strawberry in terms of ubiquity and availability. Actually, the cultivated blueberry has many advantages over other global fruits: it can be cultivated in almost all climates (maybe except in the tropics) and it is less bound to certain climatic conditions (winter coldness) than the apple, for example. But why? Why is the cultivated blueberry so successful? Also in our gardens and in our offer at Lubera®, it has overtaken all berries, except maybe the raspberries and strawberries, in one generation. Why is that?
Cultivated blueberries - what does "cultivated" mean?
Have you ever heard of cultivated raspberries or cultivated strawberries or cultivated blackberries? Do you know the term “cultivated corn”? No? The special case of the cultivated blueberries is explained simply by the fact that the domestication of blueberries is just over 100 years ago. And of course, the first breeder and pioneer, Frederick Vernon Coville – as an American and a good salesman – had every reason to emphasise this pioneering achievement: in his article in National Geographic in 1911, he even spoke of taming the wild blueberry: The Taming of the Wild Blueberries. The Taming of the Shrew, so to speak... CULTIVATED blueberries are different from the different wild berries in different continents – the blueberry is also very special because it contains no less than 350 species and is present almost everywhere in the wild. And because the new big, blue American blueberries, first and foremost grown on the basis of Vaccinium corymbosum, wanted to stand out from the indigenous wild fruits, they were then called CULTIVATED blueberries in Germany.
Cultivated blueberries are an American invention
As I said, cultivated blueberries are entirely an American invention. And the twentieth century, when the cultivated blueberries emerged and spread, was the American Century. In 1906, the botanist of the United States Department of Agriculture, Frederick Vernon Coville (1867-1937) began to study blueberries almost by accident. He had bought a farm in New Hampshire for enjoying the summer months with his family and children, and when wild blueberries grew all around the property, the botanist and agronomist's attention was quickly awakened. When Coville's holiday project in the 10s and 20s of the 20th century slowly but surely developed into "the taming of the wild blueberries" (the title of a report by Coville in National Geographic, November 1911) and the first cultivated varieties emerged, they were distributed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the USDA, where Coville worked, quickly and without barriers (no plant variety protection, no trademark protection, no fees) to the states and directly to the farmers.
In the process, the cultivated blueberry, which now emerged, could build on a foundation that already existed: at least in the eastern states, in New England, there was an existing structure of professional fruit collectors and traders collecting wild fruits in New Hampshire, New York or New Jersey and processing them for the urban markets. The American market had been waiting for those fruits that one remembered from childhood days (many city dwellers were raised in the countryside, raised on a farm). This marked the road to success, which continued to be an entirely American dynamic: after the eastern states of New England began growing the cultivated blueberries in Oregon and Washington State, after the breeding of the cold-resistant Vaccinium angustifolium (Northern Lowbush Blueberries) the cultivation in the middle West (Michigan, Minnesota) expanded and following the model of Coville in Washington D.C., agronomists in the southern states, especially in Florida, began to breed the native Southern Highbush, especially the Rabbiteye Blueberries (Vacciunium ashei) – voila, now blueberries could be grown in climates with less winter coldness – ultimately in the southern states, in South America, in Oceania and in Southern Europe to North Africa.

Picture: Cultivated blueberry 'Rubel' - one of the first cultivated blueberries with a beautiful autumn colour
Cultivated blueberries are a MODERN (American) invention
Cultivated blueberries, as we know them and as we can find for 12 months in the supermarket, are a very modern invention. The cultivated apple has existed in Europe for perhaps 2500 years, even rhubarb as a garden plant is already more than 200 years old and currants have been cultivated and specifically selected and grown since the 16th or 17th century. The garden strawberry, which originated from a more or less conscious cross of a North American and a Chilean strawberry species, has been around for more than 250 years.
Frederick Vernon Coville began working with blueberries in 1906, during the summer months with his family in New Hampshire. The domestication of wild blueberries to the cultivated blueberry took place only and exclusively in the 20th century; the first naturally selected varieties have been around since 1908. The variety ‘Brooks’ is the very first named and selected variety from a wild population (by the way, a Vaccinium corymbosum); the variety ‘Russel’ (Vaccinium angustifolium) came about in 1909, both named after the farm owners where they had been found. In 1909 and 1910, Coville made self-fertilisation trials with ‘Brooks’ (not very successful); but already in 1911 he crossed the varieties ‘Brooks’ and ‘Russel’, 1912 or 1913 was followed by the next cross between the wild selections ‘Brooks’ and ‘Sooy’ (Vaccinium corymbosum x Vaccinium corymbosum), from which then the first bred varieties ‘Pioneer’ and ‘Katherine’ came on the market in 1920 – just 100 years ago! His last variety, ‘Dixi’, was named by Coville in his last publication in 1937, shortly before his retirement as chief botanist of the USDA. And with Dixi, he did not refer to the Southern United States, but deliberately to the words of the Latin rhetoricians: Dixi, I said it, I spoke, everything is said. Coville's name and reasoning seem almost clairvoyant, and perhaps it was knowingly chosen as well. The great botanist and breeder, who by the way also wrote famous botanical expedition reports and incidentally founded the United States National Arboretum in the American capital, died in 1937, before the publication of his large scientific article 'Improving the Wild Blueberry'.
This modernity, as well as targeting agronomic science is certainly not only a hallmark of the blueberry expansion, it is part of its success. Cultivated blueberries: are the native American super fruit, bred by Americans, for the large and unified American market, which in turn is the model of almost all of the markets of the 20th century (at least in the West). And yet the modern American blueberry is an isolated case: the blueberry is the only genuinely American fruit that has spread worldwide; the shapeless pawpaw has never made it and will never make it...At the same time, however, the blueberry profited in its triumphant advance also from the fact that a certain preconception of blueberries was present in all markets, first in the United States, but then also overseas: blueberries were and are already known almost everywhere in the form of native, wild blueberries. Cultivated blueberries are not exotic fruits, but at least “distant acquaintances”. This means that blueberries were part of a well-prepared field that they can conquer, at least in the United States and Europe. It is surprising, however, that actually only American species have found their way into the cultivated blueberries. Attempts in Europe to cross native wild blueberries have never produced truly commercial success for at least the first 100 years of the blueberry success story. The American Vaccinium species obviously has the right genes for the 20th and 21st centuries...
Cultivated blueberries are transportable and storable
The ability to transport cultivated blueberries and their storage life, which can be extended up to a few months, are crucial for their worldwide success. And that already started with the first breeders: Elizabeth Coleman White, who soon supported USDA breeder Frederick Coville from her farm in New Jersey, raised and selected almost all of Coville's seedlings and crossbreeds, was a well-known cranberry producer like her father. She had the big, red, also native American fruits collected at natural sites on their land and then sold them to the big cities on the East Coast. Most likely she did the same with the wild blueberries – and so the initiators of the blueberry breeding project were used from the very beginning to send fruit over long distances. Incidentally in the '10s and '20s, Coville, White and their associates also gave detailed instructions to wild blueberry pickers who selected very good blueberry bushes and sent shoots and fruits to Washington D.C. for the USDA labs as well as to Coville. By the way: maybe you could call the cranberries (like the blueberries) an American world success, even if the fruits are mainly processed and not eaten fresh and do not have such a strong presence like the cultivated blueberries.

Picture: Cranberry 'Red Balloon' - American Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) with very healthy contents
The woman behind the cultivated blueberry: Elisabeth Coleman White
I know from personal experience that the breeder strongly influences the shape and colour and taste of his/her varieties. Of course, the existing and selected variety cannot be changed, but the preferences, his/her own taste affect the choice of selections more than one thinks. Breeding is never objective (it only works that way); breeding is always a subjective choice. At the beginning of my apple breeding career, when I had collected the apple varieties of four or five breeders in my fields, but mixed up and after two years I could tell from each and every breeder's apple, without a sign and a plan, which breeder the apples came from. However, I do not know, or only approximate, what my own breeding preferences are: this is the blind spot you cannot escape from...
But back to the cultivated blueberries. The influence of Elisabeth White from the Whitesbog farm in New Jersey on the cultivated blueberry cannot be overestimated. As mentioned above, she continued her father's cranberry business and was one of the most famous women in East Coast agribusiness at the beginning of the 20th century. However, her father's demise did not make her the head of the family business; her younger sister's husband was preferred to her, demonstrating the precarious role of women in business at the beginning of the 20th century. Elisabeth White had read an experimental report on blueberries from Coville in 1911 or 1912 and immediately contacted him: she would like to provide fields and work to promote the development of the blueberry. As a result, Coville planted almost all the seedlings from his crossbreeds at Elizabeth White’s Whitesbog farm in New Jersey, where they were also maintained, harvested, tasted and selected.
Just imagine the breeding work and consider the distances: Washington D.C., New Jersey (with the breeding farm of Elizabeth White) and New Hampshire (the holiday farm of the Coville family) form a triangle of about 200 miles side length. That was not easy to overcome in half a day, at least at the beginning of the 20th century...What happened next? Coville was the strategist, did the basic research, probably also provided the breeding parents and had the crosses done. But the breeding work, the selection happened on the Whitesbog farm. The actual breeder was Elisabeth White (possibly with the help of her co-workers). In the formative years of the blueberries until the death of Coville in 1937, she ultimately decided on the character and face of the cultivated blueberry. Like the breeders Coville, Draper and Darrow, Elisabeth White is also dedicated to a variety named after her, the late maturing aromatic variety ‘Elisabeth’. 10 years ago we collected various clones of ‘Elisabeth’ and found considerable differences and finally sold the best as ‘Blue Dessert®’. And really: ‘Blue Dessert®’ now sells much better than ‘Elisabeth’ previously did – not only because of the better selection, but probably also because of the more pronounced name, which already insinuates the quality. Better and fairer would be the name ‘Elisabeth White's Blue Dessert’.

Picture: Cultivated Blueberry 'Blue Dessert'® - a late flowering, upright and vigorous blueberry
Cultivated blueberries are big
Size! And of course you're thinking of America again. I will also admit it: everything must be bigger there, or better! When I visited a blackberry breeding programme in the United States almost 15 years ago, it was sometimes quite a one-way conversation: I kept asking for better-tasting blackberries, the breeder showed me even bigger ones...at the beginning, during the selection of the first varieties, the biggest progress in terms of the size of the blueberry fruits was made, which already reached about 80% of the size of today's largest varieties: ‘Brooks’ had already a diameter of 1.27 cm, ‘Russel’ measured a surprising 1.43 cm for a Vaccinium angustifolium (was perhaps even a natural hybrid between Vac. angustifolium and Vac. corymbosum) and the first two cultivated varieties ‘Pioneer’ and ‘Katherine’ reached 19.7 mm and 20 mm, respectively. Vaccinium corymbosum, the native wild blueberry species in New England, which made the essential contribution to the cultivated blueberry, had obviously very much to offer from the very beginning – you just had to look and choose.
The wild pickers in New Hampshire and New Jersey, who worked for White and Coville, were of course also provided with a template that would quickly measure fruit size. Coville's reason for focusing on the size of the fruit was quite simple and logical: bigger fruits cut production costs because they can be picked faster and thus cheaper. Thus, the central problem of every professional berry production was described to this day: the picking costs. In the home garden, the size does not play a decisive role at first glance, but I have already been advocating for a long time for a rehabilitation of the American megalomania, at least as far as the berry fruit is concerned: as long as the fruits are below the size of a bite, more is always more. More size also brings added value: more feeling, more texture, more juice, more flavour, more experience and, of course, always a better balance between the seeds and flesh.
In any case, size has become an essential feature of the expansion of blueberries. Today, in almost all markets, the fruit is automatically calibrated to size and the best prices are always the biggest fruit. And with the size was also the superiority of the cultivated blueberries compared to the domestic blueberries, for example, sealed in Europe. Although it was downright commonplace to support the quality of the native, small blueberries as opposed to the cultivated blueberries (which is not true to a large extent), but ultimately the bigger ones simply prevailed! Born in 1963, I probably belong to one of the last generations of Central Europeans, who first experienced blueberries in the forest with small, blue-coloured fruits (sweet, but with little flavour) and I was not influenced by the large, fat blueberries since childhood.

Picture: Cultivated blueberry 'Pink Lemonade'® - super flavour and a great decoration for every bog bed
Cultivated blueberries have a balanced flavour
This is not an allegation at all. Breeders like me usually tend to prefer sour fruits, simply because of the habituation effect. Blueberries, on the other hand, always move in the golden mean, in the golden ratio. Of course, in my individual opinion, it tastes better if some sourness gives body to the basic sweetness of the fruit (which, by the way, is more likely to come from the Corymbosum genes and less from the Angustifolium ones), but blueberries are basically settled in a “sweet spot” of sweetness and sourness, clearly on the sweet side, which almost all people like. There are hardly any extremes, in the worst case, just some varieties are sweetly empty, but aggressive sourness is hardly ever experienced, at least not in the known varieties. And the golden ratio also applies to the aroma: of course, there is a fine, almost vanilla-like, yet fresh blueberry flavour. But it is discreet, in no way intrusive, and in most cases not even very perfumed (that is, with a flavour that enters above all through the nose). The cultivated blueberry is not a rapturous fruit; it is factual, round, blue and good, without being excessive. It rejects almost nobody. Just think of the comparatively extreme cassis aroma of blackcurrants: here, the audience instantly divides itself into a minority that loves it and into a majority that loathes it. Blueberries only actually have mild lovers and tempered acceptance.
Cultivated blueberries are blue (but not too blue)
With fruit we associate colour patterns from yellow to red. But not blue. Imagine an associated colour for the word “fruit” or even “berry”: it is hardly ever blue...Therefore the blueberry has again occupied a sweet spot, a differentiated position, which sets it apart from all competition fruits, ultimately providing a gap in the market. Of course, the associations with blue psychologically are probably a lot colder than red and yellow – but the blueberry makes up for the lack of passion with its streamlined profile, which always encounters large majority approval. And yet the cultivated blueberry is not too blue: although everyone likes to call for the thoroughly blue berries of the wild European forest blueberries. But the call is not really thought out. I'll make every bet: a blueberry coloured through and through would never have prevailed like the modern, only skin-dyed blueberry from North America. Why? Just think of the mothers, all the mess on their children’s fingers and clothes. Never would worried mothers have allowed such a fruit to come into the hands of their children and men every day, every week! Certainly not in white, clean America! And without success in America, there never would have been the large, blue berries anywhere else in the world, just moderately blue blueberries. I'm just suggesting that, of course, I cannot and do not have to prove my theory. ;-)
Cultivated blueberries are healthy
Finally, the health is the signature of the blueberry’s success certificate: this great, beautiful, neat, clean and transportable fruit is still healthy. It is probably not quite as healthy as their wild cousins, uncles and aunts, but healthy enough to be praised as super fruits. It is true that one can attribute almost the same qualities to blackcurrants, red raspberries, black raspberries and blackberries reasonably well – but from the struggle of the healthy fruit giants the cultivated blueberry is quite often victorious. Because it's just practical, because it works well in all respects. To put it bluntly: with the blueberry, the fruit coagulates into a pill, round and easily ingestible. But that's far too evil now and not meant at all. The blueberry just has many benefits on its side, so many that it seems almost unfair to the other fruits.

Picture: Cultivated blueberry 'Bluesbrothers' - the most compact, bushiest and most productive blueberry
The competition of the cultivated blueberry: raspberries and blackberries
I do not currently see how raspberries and blackberries could stay on the global hit list of fruits in the long run ahead of the blueberry. They simply have far too many disadvantages. Above all else, they are much too soft in comparison and the composition of many individual fruits is not exactly beneficial. With a raspberry or blackberry, we are dealing with dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of individual fruits that react differently and may also be differently susceptible: too complex for a standardised product, too fragile for long storage and long transport distances, and not very stable due to the aggregate state of many individual fruits.
Do blueberries have disadvantages?
It was quite a sensation, a novelty, when Frederick Coville clearly stated in his experiments in 1908 that blueberries had to be cultivated on acidic soil. Until now, it had been assumed that ultimately all plants would grow well in well-draining, but humid, medium and humus-rich garden soils. Based on comparative experiments, Coville was able to show that this was not the case in the case of blueberries; they need “poor”, acidic soils, which had hitherto hardly been used, but were sufficiently present in the eastern states. That was an advantage: now even less useful soils could be used agronomically! But as it is so often: the advantage is also a disadvantage. Globally and in many growing areas, there is rather a shortage of suitable acidic acreage.
And yet the global expansion works and seems to go on and on?! Perhaps one can explain this as follows: the prices of blueberries remain more and more stable because the volume expansion is limited and it is not growing much faster than the demand. And the volume expansion is turbulent, but also limited, because only blueberries can grow where there are acidic soils or where these soil conditions can be simulated technologically. Nevertheless, this fragile balance will not last forever, at least not another 100 years. ;-) Even 10 years ago, the CEO of one of the largest apple and cherry producers in North America told me that his company had withdrawn from the blueberries, precisely because they assumed that the market would eventually collapse and the producers would then have to pick up their relatively high cost. What the man had in mind was this: that a cultivated blueberry, despite its size, is much smaller than an apple or a cherry...
Cultivated blueberries: the work of three breeders
My personal opinion on blueberries is actually not very relevant. The big blueberries will remain successful without us, regardless of my judgment. As a gardener and breeder, I'm really excited about the triumphal procession of the blueberry in just over 100 years, which is an almost unique success story in agronomy and a gigantic achievement of the researchers, breeders, consultants and agronomists involved. The almost ingenious somnambulistic confidence surely helped, in which Coville, who, as I said, had come to the project by accident, took the first steps. His programme, from 1906 to the 1920s was this: first – in just two years – he learned how the plant works, how it grows, how it fruits, how it can be grown, how it is fertilised, what soil it requires. And then immediately the first crosses with best fruit bearers were selected in the wild. Then he kept breeding. As recently as 1990, more than 70% of all crops of cultivated blueberries were bred by Coville. After Coville, two other large USDA researchers came about, who coined and further developed the cultivated blueberry in his succession: George Darrow (1889-1983), who especially developed the collective and collaborative breeding together with the states, with consultants, with private companies. The other researcher was Arlen Draper (born in 1930), who was a real gene mixer and who crossed many other species into the Corymbosum, the original Northern Highbush Blueberries...It is also this continuity of only three breeders, spanning a century, that has made the success story of blueberries possible.
Cultivated blueberries for the garden: what else does the Lubera® breeding programme have to do?
What is there for us to do, for the garden and for Lubera® breeding? I firmly believe that the main thing is to make the garden's cultivated blueberry more diverse and interesting, to breed ornamental values that complement its usefulness: other fruit shapes, earlier maturity, and above all, the ability to flower and fruit continuously. Imagine in the home garden in the future that the harvest of a blueberry variety would be possible from June to August, or alternatively from July to September on the same shrub; at the same time the shrub bears ripe fruit and on the newly grown wood there are fresh flowers pushing through again...