Strawberries are one of the most eagerly anticipated crops of the year. By growing a range of types, it’s possible to have a continuous supply of fruit from late spring, throughout summer and into autumn.
There are two main types of strawberry: summer bearers, grouped according to when they fruit, in either early, mid or late summer; and everbearers (also called perpetuals or remontant), which produce small flushes of fruit from midsummer to early autumn. For bumper harvests for months on end, choose a mix of these types.
Protect varieties that fruit very early with cloches or fleece as they come into flower and your harvest could be brought forward to the beginning of May. If you do the same with perpetual varieties at the end of the season, you could be picking your own strawberries until the first frosts.
More on growing strawberries:
Early season (late May to late June)
- ‘Cambridge Vigour’ – tasty, aromatic fruits
‘Christine’ – large, sweet fruit, disease-resistant
- ‘Honeoye’ – sweet, heavy-cropping, deep red fruit
- ‘Mae’ – very early with large, firm, juicy fruit
Mid-season (June to mid-July)
Strawberry ‘Royal Sovereign’
- ‘Elegance’ – huge, red fruit. Good in containers
‘Fenella’ – hardy with large, sweet, shiny berries
- ‘Rosie’ – shiny, sweet red berries
- ‘Royal Sovereign’ – exceptional flavour
Late season (July)
- ‘Alice’ – lovely flavour and high disease resistance
- ‘Cupid’ – great taste, very good disease resistance
- ‘Florence’ – prolific crops of firm luscious fruit
- ‘Malwina’ – very sweet, with dark red fruit
Everbearers / perpetuals / remontants (July to September)
Strawberry ‘Mara des Bois’
- ‘Albion’ – an everbearer that’s well suited to containers, outstanding taste
- ‘Flamenco’ – an everbearer that gives bumper crops of sweet, juicy fruit
‘Mara des Bois’ – an everbearer that has an alpine flavour
Add to your strawberry collection by growing alpine strawberries too. These small plants bear tiny fruits that have an aromatic flavour. They crop from spring to the first frosts and do well in partial shade.