Bilberry Bushes / Plants For Sale UK

Bilberry bushes / plants for sale in the UK. There are many ways to get your daily dose of Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus). You can drink some juice, eat some dried bilberries, or have some tasty jams / preserves on your toast or cereal. But if you want to be a bit more hands on, and want to know first hand where your Bilberries have come from, what better way than to grow your own Bilberry bushes / Shrubs. 

Buy: Bilberry Seeds | Bilberry Plants / Bushes

Well actually, while it is nice to actually own one or more of these plants, if you want to obtain a decent amount of berries it really does make more sense to just buy them from somewhere else. This is because one bush won't supply that many Bilberries. People who buy these bushes to grow at home usually purchase 5 - 10+ bushes in order to reap a decent harvest when the time comes around to pick the berries. Furthermore, like other fruits, they are seasonal. So if you want them today, or in the next month, it's not going to happen. But when the date for harvesting does come around, it will be very rewarding to pick and eat berries that you have grown in your own garden.

In some areas of the UK Bilberry shrubs do grow wild, so for the most part, growing Bilberry bushes in your garden should result in all the plants actually bearing some fruit. Note: They love / prefer soil with high acid content. They also require little to no maintenance, which is great if your the type of person who wants to plant the shrubs in the ground and let nature take its course. Fancy yourself as a bit of a hiker who has a strong lower back? You could always just travel to one of the locations in the UK where Bilberries are growing wild (September time) and pick a whole container full to take home. The choice is yours.

So, where can they be found for sale. Well, firstly you have to decide, do you want to buy seeds and start them from the beginning, or would you prefer to buy them as young plants that are already rooted and growing. The easiest but more expensive option is to buy them as young plants, this way all you have to do is leave them potted for a while until they get their vigour back (from being packaged and posted through the postal system), and then either leave them potted until they grow big enough to be planted outside when the frost passes, or re-pot (preferably using ericaceous compost) into bigger containers and leave them as potted plants / shrubs.

Where to buy. They can be found for sale as seeds and small plants on various online outlets and garden centres. eBay is a great place to pick up the seeds for very cheap. And almost equally as good for purchasing young plants, too. However, don't forget about Amazon. As well as seeds, they also have a good little selection of sellers who have small shrubs for sale. And their review feedback is mostly excellent.

One seller well worth considering is Lubera. They have Bilberry Sylvana plants for sale and have great feedback from past customers. They are not cheap though, and you may need at least a few plants for it to be worth your while if your intention is to get enough fruit to be able eat / cook with, so be sure you want to grow your own before committing to purchase.

Buying Dried Bilberry Fruit Powder

Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus) comes in many forms. Some of those include raw fruit, organic, supplement extracts, jams, juices, teas, dried whole berries, and in power form. Bilberry is very seasonal, so trying to find it for sale in its raw form at certain times of the year can be difficult. In fact, in most other forms except supplements (which this blog does not recommend you buy), it can be fairly hard to source. There is definitely a shortage of companies offering this super food in its most popular forms.

There are many reasons behind this. One being how hard it is to grow on a big scale in a controlled environment. The other being how soft and delicate the fruit is, which makes it hard to ship in large quantities without getting damaged. Also, there's the profit Vs effort + investment for the companies, which has never been that great with this fruit. This is probably why its more rarer than everything else! Read more about that here.

Bilberry power is a sensible option, not only for the companies, but also for the consumer. However, you must be careful when choosing a brand because not all of them follow the same guide lines, and there's not many that can claim to have a great finished product. Some don't follow certain procedures, like freezing the fruit instantly before damage can occur, and then drying at the correct temperatures to make sure that as much of the goodness and taste is maintained in the fruit as possible.

Others have been known to use other parts of the plant, like leaves. Once in powder form, it is hard to spot, but the taste usually gives it away. Poorly produced powders are usually tasteless, and not really worth mixing with anything. If you've tried the bad bilberry powders, and then finally found a good one, you will notice the difference a mile off. Sadly, if you've never had a high quality powder, you will probably think that the bad quality example (if you happened to end up buying a bad one) was the way the powder generally tasted. But the quality is solely dependant on each individual company. Right down to where the fruit is harvested from, how its transported + time before frozen, and also the drying temperature / storing environment.

That brings me to the powder that I consider as the best out there for the price. It's produced by Finnberry. If the name wasn't a big enough giveaway, their Bilberries are hand picked in Finland. If you're not aware, Finland is one of the countries where Bilberries grow wild. They actually thrive there due to certain parts of the country being the perfect climate for optimal quality fruit. It's not a stretch to say that Finland produces some of the best Bilberries in the world.

So, when you add exceptional quality fruit with people who know how to successfully complete the process of quickly freezing when picked, carefully drying at the correct temperature, and then turning the berries into power, you get a great end result. 100% pure bilberry fruit powder. The reviews, and taste, speak for themselves.

Finnberry make sure that their Bilberries are dried at a temperature which allows the fruit to retain the highest possible level of nutritional value. Add to smoothies, yoghurt, porridge, cakes, and anything else you feel tempted to experiment with. Please share this post if you found it useful. Thank you, and thanks again for stopping by.

Organic Bilberry Jam Available For Sale

If you’ve done some hunting around online you will no doubt be aware of how difficult it can be to find Bilberry fruit for sale in the UK it’s various forms. As discussed in a previous post on this website about Bilberry supplements, do not buy them. Most contain close to no Bilberry what so ever. If you do your research you will find out that this is fact based information backed up by many tests having being done on Bilberry supplements by independent laboratories.

So the best, and most safest thing is buying products that are made from real Bilberries. Such as 100% Pure Bilberry Juice, Dried Bilberries, and Bilberry jams. Or if you’re lucky enough to have access to fresh Bilberries, whether that be from a supermarket or seasonal farmers market etc then that is the best way to consume Bilberries, and will ensure you get maximum taste and nutritional benefit. Some people are taking the initiative, seeing the huge demand for Bilberry plants, some are now offering  Bilberry plants / bushes for sale. So if you would prefer to grow your own, give it a go.

Just like any other fruit jam, Bionova Organic Bilberry Jam does contain sugar. However, this is raw cane sugar that is flown in from Brazil to the UK and is fair trade. It also contains a considerable amount of Bilberry fruit content of 45%, which is all Organic Bilberries. This ensures that you’ll get your daily dose of Bilberries. As we know, Bilberries are high in antioxidants and have many unique properties not found in many other berries. Buyers of this jam all state that it is of a very high quality. Reviews are excellent. It has the full five stars. So definitely worth the money. Looking for Bilberry jam in the USA? This Bionova brand is for sale in America too. Take a look here.

It comes in a package of six jars and cost just over £** (UK price).See the link above. The jars are 340 grams each, so this is basically the average size of a jar of jam sold in ASDA, Sainsburys etc. This is great value for money considering how hard it is to find genuine Bilberry products for sale in the UK. If you would prefer to just buy one jar as a sample then that is available too. Great for breakfast on toast or added to a bowl of porridge.

Organic Bilberry Juice Is Back For Sale

Finally, someone is selling Organic Bilberry Juice again!. It is so hard to locate real Bilberry products on a regular basis. They can be found but are usually quite expensive. But I suppose you get what you pay for. If you want the best you have to pay the price. This is a nice little find. Here we have Organic Wild Bilberry Juice from Sarchio.

It states that their Bilberry Juice is Organic and contains no added sugars or add water. This is 100% Bilberry nutrition. It is not cheap however. A package of 6 bottles will set you back around £26. Which when you add the postage costs to the final price turns out to be about £5 a bottle you end up paying. It is expensive but for a quality product like this that is 100% pure organic juice it is worth it. Bilberries are jam packed with antioxidants and are known to be very good for a persons overall health.

They are most noted for their ability to promote good eye health, but they are much more able then that. They are beneficial in other ways too. If you want to read more about the Bilberry fruit in general click here.

Bilberry Vaccinium Myrtillus Extract

The Bilberry, Vaccinium Myrtillus, is a small dark purple fruit from the berry family. Despite what some people think, Bilberries (Vaccinium Myrtillus) are not Blueberries. Bilberries look very much like Blueberries and their names are even similar, so it’s an easy mistake to make.

Although the two are totally different berries they are from the same gene pool. There basically like long-lost brothers. Blueberries are bigger in size, have a green pulp, and are not as juicy.

The Bilberry fruit is more like a blackberry or a blackcurrant on the inside, very dark in colour, softer, and tastes much stronger and pungent than Blueberries.

Bilberries grow wild in Russia, Europe, and the UK. The plants themselves look like shrubs / bushes, are quite tough and can grow very well in bad soil conditions. But it should be noted, only when growing wild are Bilberries in their element. In any other setting they are very hard to grow. Bilberries also grow in single or double berries, where as Blueberries grow in clusters. This makes picking wild Bilberries more harder and more time consuming. Bilberries produce a considerably smaller overall harvest yield than Blueberry crops. This is one of the reasons why real Bilberry extract is so expensive, and also why the fruits themselves are much harder to find being sold in shops and stores on a regular basis.


Another reason why Bilberries are not sold large scale like Blueberries is because Bilberry’s are soft and very difficult to transport without becoming damaged. Because of how delicate Bilberries are they mostly have to be hand picked when harvest time comes due to conventional commercial picking methods being too rough. Again, resulting in damaged fruit. A lot of Bilberry is actually frozen before transportation to ensure a safe and intact delivery, and also to retain the natural levels of anthocyanosides contained in Bilberries. Damage to the fruit lowers the anthocyanoside levels.

Bilberry is at this time commercially collected in a high number of European country’s, as well as in Russia. The Majority of bilberry fruit is still obtained through wild harvesting, a lot of it within certified organic guide lines. A number of efforts have been made in order to commercially grow Bilberry crops in America. Unfortunately, the majority ended up failing. The ones that did have slight success ended up not being enough of a success to make it financially viable for investors.Commercial growing of Bilberry is now looked at as a bad investment and people prefer to keep operations small and in a more wilder setting to ensure better results all round.

Bilberries are classed as a super food. They have been used in traditional medicine for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Bilberries are high in antioxidants, containing anthocyanosides and Flavonoid anthocyanadins. These are known to have many health benefits, but are most well known for eye health. Studies have shown that Bilberries strengthen capillaries and are effective at treating people with eye problems like damaged retina’s, cataracts, and mascular degeneration. Enhanced night vision and a swifter adjustment to darkness has also been observed during trials.

There is a story in circulation about the RAF Pilots in World War II eating Bilberry jam and claiming that it gave them improved night vision when bombing the enemies at night. However, this was a false story. It was leaked on purpose to the Germans in order to hide the real facts behind the improved accuracy in blowing up targets, which was actually thanks to new advancements in technology such as RADAR. But the studies on Bilberries are real and ongoing, and they do have numerous benefits for visual and overall health. Some Including improved blood circulation, helping to keep the heart and respiratory system healthy, improved digestion, and the mopping up of free radicals within body cells. Free radicals are said to be one of the contributing factors for various illnesses, so we can see how important it is to consume foods with the ability to get rid of free radicals.

Other berries and fruits that contain Anthocyanosides include Blackberries, Elderberries, Blueberries, Grapes, and Raspberries. As healthy as all these fruits are, none of them contain more Anthocyanosides than the Bilberry. The only other berry that contains more Anthocyanosides is the Chokeberry, more often called the Aronia berry. However, tests have so far shown that the anthocyanins contained in Bilberries and genuine Bilberry Extract are the only ones that can improve eye health. Perhaps this could be due to the other berries not yet being tested for that purpose. Or it may be due to the high delphinidin content found specifically in Bilberries.

In the UK you may be able to find Bilberry products in shops like Asda, Sainsburys, and Morrisons, such as Bilberry jams, preserved Bilberries in syrup, and occasionally dried Bilberries. Please note: A lot of the time these products are sold out. Other sources for Bilberry include farmers markets and Polish shops. Bilberries grow wild in Poland and are very popular so the Polish shops located in the UK and USA sometimes stock these products to cater for the Polish Community that reside there. If you go to the farmers markets at harvest time you will get fresh Bilberries, and that’s the best method of consuming Bilberries.

On this website we do not recommend taking Bilberry extract supplements. The Bilberry extract supplement market is filled with products that contain little to no Bilberry extract what so ever. Even though most claim to be standardised to a certain extract level. Usually standardised to 25% anthocyanosides. This will be covered more in a future post. I think you will be quite shocked when you find out the truth about Bilberry extracts that are being sold. If you are on a diet or just generally trying to live a healthier lifestyle by exercising and eating better you should definitely consider adding Bilberries to your shopping list. They have unique properties that are not found in a lot of fruits.

If you can’t manage to find them in the shops I believe you can buy them in dried form from Amazon, and having just checked, Amazon UK do have Bilberry jam and Bilberry Juice for sale. If buying dried Bilberries they will lose some of their potency and nutritional value through the drying process and shelf sitting time period, but it’s better to eat the real thing rather than settle for low quality extracts, that like mentioned above, don’t contain the stated amount of Bilberry extract or in some cases contain no Bilberry extract at all.