Your biggest issue is not which variety to grow, but finding or building good soil. While there are pockets of good acidic loamy soils in MTN, it is more typically thin, neutral, clay/chert on limestone bedrock, or if you are up on the Highland Rim, acidic clay/chert. If you have the thin limey soils, then raised beds may be needed. The acidic red clay on the Rim will need lots of organic soil amendments. A soil test is essential. The one variety that has done best for me so far is Ozark Blue. Mine are just coming into good production, or would have been, if not for the big Easter freeze. I do have scattered berries on most varieties, but lost most of the crop on just about everything. Oneal is a good early variety. It needs more acid soil than most, but flowers over a long period, so spring frosts usually only get some of the earlier blooms. Others doing really well are, Legacy, Sierra, Blueray and Aurora. Blueray is probably the most heat tolerant northern highbush. Aurora is very late ripening and also suffered the least damage from the freeze. Star is a newer variety that a friend with a big blueberry farm near Lebanon really likes. It blooms late, but ripens really early. Aurora, Ozark Blue, and Oneal probably have the best fall colors, although most varieties are really good in that area. If you get a chance, go visit Kelly's Berry Farm just north of Lebanon. After many years of growing many varieties, they now grow mostly Ozark Blue, Oneal, and Blueray, along with some of the old rabbiteye standards, Tifblue and Climax. Unfortunately, they will not have any blueberries this year due to the freeze. They do still have some strawberries, although it is getting late in the season. They also should have a good blackberry crop by summer. Avoid the shade as much as possible. I just moved some bushes that got some partial shade. They just did not grow much or produce well at all, but the same varieties out in full sun were doing great. ~kiwinut

Ant colonies do indeed kill various plantings at times, such as, blueberries and tomatoes for me. It is quite likely that roots would take up all kinds of things from the soil and go systemic throughout the plant, including several ingredients from your Raid can. So far there is no known mechanism whereby living creatures such as e-coli can go systemic through root absorbtion, but there aren't many safe guards against chemicals.

I am looking to exchange plant cuttings for propagation. I have cuttings from ivy, butterfly bush, a pear tree, blueberry bush, azalea (white and pink), small cuttings from rosemary, lavender, mint, Pink Chinese Loropetalum, and I just successfully rooted a pinnapple that I am willing to trade.. I am open to most cuttings but am looking for rasberry, and blackberry bushes, and fruit trees other than pears, different varieties of what I already have, cherry tree, cherry tree blossom, maple, magnolia, willow, hydrangia, jasmine, westeria, just let me know what you have. :-) I will give you better contact info over email.

Reddish tinted new spring growth is pretty typical for blueberries and not something I'd be overly concerned about. The mottling and/or cankers on the stems in the first 2 photos is another matter and could be one of several types of bacterial or fungal issues. Blueberry diseases