STRAWBERRIES IN CONTAINERS OR BORDER

For a number of years I have grown various types of strawberries with varying degrees of success.  I gave up on the well known types which are commonly seen in the supermarkets because they were often either deformed, diseased, or didn't develop at all.  I turned my attention to the more successful Perpetual strawberry variety, (also called everfruiting or everbearers) which is all I grow now.  I grow them in a pot and in a free-standing trough and although the fruit is rarely large, they don't seem to suffer from that awful grey mould known as botrytis.  To discourage disease, every couple of years I discard the old plants and replace with new ones grown from the runners which the parent plants create.  I noticed, last year, that there was a strawberry growing amid the perennials at the top of my sunny border and I decided to leave it right there to see what happens.  This is what happened:

Strawberries from plant found growing in my perennial border

The thing is, I have no idea what type of strawberry this is.  Is it a survivor of the ones I grew originally like Elsanta, Honeoye, Sonata, or Cambridge Favourite or is it a Perpetual?  It's hard to tell right now.  For certain, I never planted it and I have no idea whether it grew from a seed or how it came about.  I have never grown strawberries in my garden borders for the reason that after a few years you cannot grow strawberries in the same soil because of the tendency for disease to build up in the soil.  I only have a small garden and so I do not have the space to rotate 'crops'. 



What is remarkable about this self-planting strawberry is that it is growing in shade created by the nearby, taller, perennials so the sun that it gets on its leaves is pretty limited.  It has thrown out runners which have taken root amid perennials and are also providing healthy strawberries, devoid of disease like botrytis (for now, anyway).  So how come these seem to be doing better than the ones in my trough and pot?



Strawberries, according to the Royal Horticultural Society, need sun, shelter, and fertile, well-drained, soil.   The strawberries in my trough and pot are two years old and were replanted in early spring in fresh compost.  They get as much full sun as the weather will allow them but, and this is a big but, they are often subjected to the wind that often plays havoc with my garden which is about 870ft above sea level.  Is that the key to it all?  Do my container grown strawberries fare less well because of the wind?   Perhaps not this year but next year I will have to try positioning the containers where the strawberry plants get more shelter. 

Strawberry flower on plant found growing in my perennial border

Meanwhile, I am happy picking whatever strawberries my plants provide and I am thrilled with the glut of raspberries I am getting.  Even the cherries on the sweet cherry tree seems to be developing and ripening - if only I can get to them before that infernal Wood Pigeon. 

Woodpigeon

(note identifying white marking on neck)