Wyoming Raspberry vs Bilberry - TreeTime.ca

Wyoming Raspberry vs Bilberry

Vaccinium myrtillus

Rubus x Wyoming

CUSTOM GROW

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON - MIGHT RETURN

Bilberry
Wyoming Raspberry

Bilberry is a native perennial shrub valued for its small, blue-black berries that ripen in mid to late summer. The berries resemble blueberries but have a richer, more tart, and intense flavor. They have long been used for fresh eating, baking, and preserves, while also providing food for birds and mammals. In spring, its delicate pinkish flowers attract bees and other pollinators.

Growing low to the ground, Bilberry forms spreading colonies that create dense understory cover. This growth habit provides food and shelter for wildlife, and its foliage adds seasonal interest by turning red to purple in autumn. With its adaptability and ecological benefits, Bilberry is well-suited for naturalization, ecological restoration, and pollinator gardens.

Wyoming Raspberry is a blackberry/raspberry hybrid. It is a vigorous grower, with floricane canes reaching up to 8 feet, which you must support if they are heavily laden with fruit.

The fruit is a deep purple to black drupe, with a flavour between blackberry and raspberry.

It is more cold hardy than other black raspberry cultivars, suitable to cold hardiness zone 3a. Wyoming Black Raspberry is non-suckering, making it suitable for the small home garden.

The Wyoming Raspberry is a fast-growing floricane. This means that raspberries will not grow on canes the year they first grow. The mature canes they do grow on, however, produce more berries than primocane varieties.

Bilberry Quick Facts

Wyoming Raspberry Quick Facts

Zone: 3a
Zone: 3a
Height: 0.3 m (1.0 ft)
Height: 2.4 m (8 ft)
Spread: 0.5 m (1.5 ft)
Spread: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Light: partial shade, full sun
Light: full sun
Moisture: normal
Moisture: normal, wet
Growth rate: slow
Growth rate: fast
Life span: medium
Life span: short
Growth form: low growing, clump-forming
Spreading: rhizomes - medium, seeds - medium
Suckering: none

Toxicity: leaves may be unsafe in high doses

Foliage: small, rough, with jagged edges
Flowers: white or pink, bell-shaped
Bloom time: summer
Berries: round bluish-purple berries, edible
Berries: black raspberries
Flavor: sweet
Harvest: late summer to early fall
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


Native to: AB, BC
Other Names: common bilberry, dwarf bilberry, low bilberry, myrtille, myrtle blueberry, myrtle whortleberry, whortleberry
Other Names: wyoming black raspberry