A week ago, my recently-planted blueberry bushes looked like the above picture—full of tiny little blueberry buds. If I didn’t care about the long-term growth of the plant, I could have just let those mature and eaten whatever small handful each bush would have provided. But, instead, I’m in this house for the long haul, so I headed outside with my trusty bypass pruners to take off the buds. (Yes, I use purple pruners—it’s my daughter’s favorite color and she picked them out at Fred Meyer.)

Note: General blueberry pruning should not be done at this time of year. It should be done in the dormant period, from January to March. For more information, please see Growing Blueberries In Your Home Garden from OSU Extension. (They have some great pruning videos on that page as well.) In this case, I was only nipping the buds, snipping at the tips of the branches between the last leaves and the start of the buds.

This is the finished product—a healthy but flowerless young blueberry bush:

Speaking of dormant periods … I have learned another thing about blueberries recently, courtesy of a gardener at the recent Earth Day Celebration. I talked with him about moving one of my blueberries, because I think I planted it in a slightly soggy area and blueberries like drainage. His recommendation was to let it ride for the season, and then move it in the winter if it is having any trouble. He said that blueberries have a very compact root ball (unlike roses or blackberries), and they are fairly easy to move. This way, I would not stunt this year’s growth for the plant. Good to know!