Some varieties of blueberries can work on your deck or around your vegetable garden

Q: Where can I buy blueberries that can be grown in pots? Can they live through the winter in a large pot on the deck? I have had good luck with a clematis, and I would like to change it for a blueberry.

A: There are several kinds of dwarf blueberries that should survive just fine outdoors in a pot. Vaccinium ‘Sunshine Blue,’ which is recommended for our climate, grows 3-4 feet high and produces up to 10 pounds of sweet, nutritious fruit. It has bell-shaped, hot-pink flowers in May, followed by fruit that ripens over a long season from late July through September.

The dwarfest of the blueberries is called ‘Top Hat,’ and stays so small it looks more like an edible bonsai than a fruit-bearing shrub. ‘Top Hat’ grows only 18 inches high and wide yet is smothered in summer with tasty berries.

You can find blueberries sold bare-root in nurseries in early spring; mail-order companies also ship some kinds of blueberry bushes in autumn. A reliable regional source is Raintree Nursery in Morton (www.raintreenursery.com); just reading their catalog is a lesson in growing fruit in our west-of-the-Cascades climate.

Q: I’m thinking of hedging my vegetable garden with blueberries and am looking for a kind that is evergreen. Does such a plant exist?

A: You’re in luck — ‘Sunshine Blue,’ described above, keeps most of its leaves all winter, and they even turn attractive shades of red and orange in late autumn. The fruit is light blue and delicious, and the plants form a compact mound ideal for hedging. Like most blueberries, ‘Sunshine Blue’ grows and fruits well in sun or partial shade and requires well-drained soil and regular watering in summer.

Q: Two years ago, we planted a screen of clumping bamboo. I can’t remember the name for sure, but I think it was “fargesia” something. It has grown too well, and now the clumps are so thick, with weak stems sticking out all over. What should we do with this mess?

A: Your bamboo could well be the hardy, clumping Fargesia robusta. I grow this bamboo and have found it to be a handsome, well-behaved plant. That doesn’t mean, however, that bamboo doesn’t need thinning to look its best. At least twice a year, usually late spring and midsummer, I spend a couple of hours culling the clump. This means cutting down to the ground the weak or old or just-too-congested culms, or shoots. Be sure to step back often and look critically at what you’re doing so you don’t thin it out so much you don’t get the effect you want.

Bamboo looks its best when a clump is thinned so that you can see each stalk; also, stripping the leaves off the bottom of each stalk helps the airy effect that bamboo is so good at creating. But remember that bamboo is the fastest-growing woody plant in the world, so even the clumping kinds need attention to look their best.

Valerie Easton also writes about Plant Life in Sunday’s Pacific Northwest Magazine. Write to her at P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111 or e-mail planttalk@seattletimes.com with your questions. Sorry, no personal replies.