The location of ice crystals and their relationship to xylem vessels was studied in nonacclimated and acclimated `Berkeley' blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) flower buds. Light microscopy and low-temperature scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to detect ice crystals in the bud scales, floret scales, and bracts of dormant flower buds that had been frozen to -15C. No evidence of ice formation was observed in rachises, pedicels, and organs in florets when buds that had been fixed while frozen at -5C were examined with conventional SEM. This indicated that dormant buds underwent extraorgan freezing as a survival mechanism. Ice formation was not uniform in nonacclimated or deacclimated buds, although it was more prevalent in both than in acclimated buds. Large ice crystals were found in the ovaries of freeze-stressed nonacclimated buds. In deacclimated freeze-stressed buds, ice was found in the petals, rachises, pedicels, and ovaries. To determine whether this ice distribution pattern was correlated with the presence of mature xylem vessels, cleared flower buds were stained with basic fuchsin, which revealed the intact network of lignified elements. In nonacclimated buds (20 Sept.), mature xylem vessels extended through the rachises, connecting the bud scales with the floret scales and through the pedicels into the corollas of the florets. Although vascular development occurred in dormant buds, the greatest proliferation of vessels in the ovaries, petals, and sepals occurred coincident to the appearance of ice in these organs and the loss of hardiness.