Blueberry for Showy Hedging - Overwintering

I'm trying to select an evergreen Blueberry variety that is more ornamental in nature (Pink Icing maybe?) to use like a hedge. The Monrovia pictures look so nice and clean, but when I look at them in the nurseries they look so messy.

Any tips on how to keep them looking tidy?

Also, is it possible to overwinter this plant outdoors if it's in a pot? I've seen some gardens where they submerge the pot so you get the best of both worlds...

 

I planted a couple of Vacciniumcorymbosum ‘Sunshine Blue’. which is a dwarf high bush blueberry like Pink Icing. The bloom on new shoots. They are in my front (North) that gets some sun. They like well drained soil, sun, acidic soil, mulch, and they can get gangly, unless you prune them, and they sucker mildly. They are quite open plants so I wouldn't think they would look very good as a hedge, but you might be able to prune them to be more compact, though suckering may increase. They can be pruned in the winter, especially taking out the hard woody stems, but not until the plants are 5 years old. Putting plants in pots usually lowers the zone number by 1 so if you are in zone 7, it would become zone 6.

 

'Top Hat' is a self-fertile dwarf variety meant to be grown in pots. It has performed well in a 12" pot on my roof deck for two summers, and weathered our last harsh winter in place without cover. It produces a compact 14" by 12" plant which is denser than the other blueberries I've grown both in soil and in pots. I've probably harvested more than a quart of berries from it this summer but because of the density of the leaves you do have to look for them! It's just not very big, so may not be hedging material.

 

at a previous garden - I had good success with Vaccinium ovatum "Thunderbird" ---

maybe Daniel moderator can comment --- isn't this originally from UBC?

 

Yes Vaccinium ovatum 'Thunderbird' was a UBCBG introduction. It has very nice foliage. I guess the question here is which fruit producing Vacciniums are the easiest to manage as a hedge. It seems like it would be a good choice for that.