Strawberries (2022)

‘Albion’ Strawberry growing in a greenhouse in early spring.

Strawberries are definitely one of my favorite “foods” you can grow at home. They can be a little slow to start, but once you have some established, they basically take care of themselves (This is my favorite plant quality for food production). You can plant a good range of varieties and extend your harvest period, and plant things you can’t buy at the store. Plus, in a climate like we have here, where winter lasts between 5 months and 87 years (or so it feels sometimes), their early burst of green in the spring is a nice sign of hope that warmer weather is ACTUALLY on the way.

I’ve picked up a wide range of strawberries over the years, and keep them going with the runners they produce. Unfortunately, I no longer know what variety each plant is. All I know is that when I actually get to taste the strawberries before the slugs, squirrels or birds get them, they are delicious and a thousand times better than anything you can buy from the grocery store.

Yellow Wonder Strawberry – The first last year that was ripe enough to try. Eventually the berries were almost twice the size, and didn’t seem bothered by any pests.

The only established plants that I know the variety of are:

Yellow Wonder Strawberries that I started from seed a few years ago. Last year was the first year that I got a decent amount of fruit off the 4 plants I have. Fair warning if you want to grow your strawberries from seed… They grow VERY slowly, and germination can be difficult, but it is so satisfying to finally get the berries off of those plants; Just a test of patience.
Berries Galore (White and Rose). I added some of these last year and they survived winter! They get more productive as the plants get older, so I will hopefully get some decent strawberries from these plants this year… or the slugs and squirrels will.

My Berries Galore ‘Rose’ strawberry – survived winter. (The crowns were covered with mulch and soil but I will make sure they are cleared out as our temperatures start to warm up – it still gets pretty cold at night, and snowy-blizzardy days are still not out of the question)

If I ever get my big giant garden of my dreams, I can assure you that there will be big ol’ strawberry beds with a variety of different types in there. I have a pipe dream of growing enough strawberries to make my own jam (although I would likely rather freeze them or dehydrate the majority of them as a preservation method as my tastes have changed over the years)

This year, I am adding 5 “Flamingo” strawberries to my collection. They are new this year, and don’t they look awesome? I should be able to tell them apart from any others I have too.

I also picked up a Raspy-berry Strawberry, and will grab a ‘Cherry-berry’ Strawberry if I see one anywhere.

‘Albion’ Strawberry ripening in early spring in a greenhouse. Showing the benefit of growing in a container – berries are easy to pick, and not laying on the soil.

I tend to keep my strawberries mostly in pots, because if we ever move, I want the option to take them with us easily. This also helps to ensure that the humans get the berries, as they are up off the ground where the slugs don’t have easy access. This also helps me choose only the hardiest of my plants, because a lot of them actually survive winter in pots (protected) which tends to be something that is rare in a climate like this. I have started a collection of them at my Dad’s so that I have some back up to harvest daughter plants off of runners so that I have a way to build up my strawberry plant collection if the opportunity presents itself. It also gives my dad some fruit to snack on.

Just before I post this Strawberry post, I also picked up 10 ‘Hecker’ Strawberry crowns to add to my collection. I’m also tempted by the ‘Eclair’ crowns we currently have at work as well as ‘Albion’ and who knows what other varieties I’ll find out in the ‘wild’ as garden stuff starts to show up in every store. Over the Spring, I think what I might do, is do individual posts on each strawberry variety, as those would be easier to search for. I want to add in latin names, and any history on the varieties that I can find, because I nerd out on that kind of thing.