If you want them primarily for wildlife, perhaps you should consider wild, native varieties...

Hi Tom

We are surrounded by the best blueberry farms that I go to pick when in season, one in Clermont and one in Windermere, one you can pick earlier date and the other one later. You can sample the best varieties for our area and see what you like best. For wildlife, I would rather pick mulberries, more berries and taller.
In my garden I have Emerald and Jewel as a pollinator, also have the dwarf Sunshine Blue. They are in containers planted in pine fines and peat moss.
Go check the care of the blueberry farms, varieties, growing conditions, they are so well maintained and productive.

Silvia

Hi Tom.Blueberries are kind of tricky to grow.First you need very,very acidic soil.So in Florida you will have to amend the soil.Second,they do best on a raised bed.Need good drainage.Third,you need two different varieties to cross pollinate.

I wouldn't say that they're tricky. If you keep a few things in mind, acidic soil, light conditions (sunny), moisture and two varieties, the blueberries kind of take care of themselves.

Like Silvia, I have an Emerald and a Jewel. When I was looking into growing Blueberries, Bamboo_Rabbit gave me a lot of information, some directly and some indirectly. I did some research on the low-chill varieties and found that Emerald and Jewel were close enough in bloom periods that they would give the best chance of cross pollination. Both last year and this year my Emerald started blooming about a week before the Jewel, which means both are in bloom at the same time.

Also like Silivia, I have my blueberry bushes planted in pine fines, though mine are in-ground. There are some acidic fertilizers that can help with lowering your PH, but I have found that by using the pine fines and dropping my coffee grounds around the bushes as well as sometimes pouring pickle juice around the root zone has been enough to lower my PH to an 'acceptable' range. One big thing to avoid is using tap water for watering purposes. When the soil around my bushes gets too dry, I grab a watering can of rainwater and give them a drink. Water from the tap can be quite alkaline and using that to water your bushes would be detrimental. For the most part, however, I don't have to worry about this. I have the bushes planted on the lowest point of my yard so they get most of the summer rains and that seems to generally keep them happy.

For more information than you might really want as well as a lot of good tips on lowering your pH, do a forum search for Bamboo_Rabbit and Blueberries. Two posts in particular to look for area Blueberry Lovers and Growing Blueberries in Central Florida. Oops, I totally messed up and linked those posts making it too easy to find them! Enjoy.

Oh, and rather than letting the berries go to wildlife during their first year, it is better to just remove the flowers/berries for the first year and let them put all their energy into establishing themselves.

I planted 4 Emerald and 3 Jewel about a month ago using a mixture of peat moss,back topsoil and native soil along with some sulfur to help lower the PH.The Emerald are doing great,fully leafed out and some blooms which I will pull but the Emerald plants must be faulty as they haven't even made a bud.

Only been in Florida for a couple years and finding gardening here will be a real challenge compared to my native Kentucky.We grew blueberries ther with good success for 35 years.

Need a good source for ordering a few more Jewel plants

If you got them a month ago, it is possible that the seller pruned the bushes a bit late last summer and removed the buds. I find this unlikely as sellers usually like to have their plants in full bloom when on display even though the good ones will advise to at least thin out the blooms/fruit for the first year, but it is a possibility. Are they leafing out at all?

The Jewell don't even have a bud.Took several pictures of the plot and sent to supplier