Blueberries and such in open ground

Our latest project, led by my young son, involves his interpretation of a Japanese garden. We have blueberries, an acer, and a camelia ready to go in.

The trouble is, I believe all these plants prefer acid soil, and I know from experience that blueberries in particular will drop dead in days if the soil is too alkaline.

The soil is clay, enriched about ten years ago with spent mushroom compost. Formerly we had willow growing in the spot. My dad reckons that after ten years, a combination of the rain washing mineral salts away and the willows consuming them will mean the soil is probably neutral by now.

What do we reckon? Chance it, or would I be condemning the plants to certain death?

 

I get away with camelia in neutral soil, but never tried blueberries.
I have got a protea in the ground which likes very poor acid soil and I give it one iron feed a year and all the leftovers from the tea pot, it seems to like it.

If you planted them, I dont think all would be lost as you could go down the iron feed route if they looked unhappy.

 

We used 12" or bigger pots filled with Ericaceous compost for our blues, worked well for us.