A bit unclear.. you covered the bare soil between the rows of plants with straw right? Don't cover the new plants, just snug the fresh mulch up close to them. All you have to do now is keep the soil moist and watch them grow. You may be better off putting your leaves and clippings into your compost pile since it will take some time for them to decompose enough to be of any use to the strawberries. The aged horse manure worked into the soil before planting will probably give them enough nourishment for this year.

May as well try and plant them, you'll probably have some survive. I couldn't resist clearance bare root strawberries from the grocery store, and I'm having a 50% success rate with those (that have been sitting on a shelf for weeks). If you're planting in a container, always use potting mix. Garden soil compacts too much, from the constant watering. If they ate junebearing strawberries, by all means take off this years flowers. Overwinter the containers in the garage, perhaps, since the roots of plants are less hardy than other parts. If the strawberries are day-neutral or everbearing, just remove the flowers for a month or so, you can let them get a few berries at least. Good luck!

Cricket1, I've never used All Sport, but yes the particles were consistently sized. I'd guess something like 10% of the material passed through the insect screen, but almost all of the material went through the 1/8" screen. I just got done sifting, mixing, then rinsing the medium, all 21 or so gallons of it, then planting. That was much more of a pain in the neck than I anticipated! The 1:1 mix feels really heavy physically, but if you grab a handful it does have a surprisingly loose feel, and is easy to dig in. It drains nicely too, I put the wet mix in the semi-hydro container immediately after rinsing, and water was coming out of the hole in the side without me even flooding the container. All that said, I think if I ever have to do this again, and I can't save this medium for some reason, I will just buy LECA or order the hydroponic specific version of turface online. All this sifting and rinsing is really time consuming. I also realized that if I try to water these containers with a nutrient solution, I'm going to have to mix up like 10 gallons at a time to fully saturate the containers the way it's supposed to be done. I'm thinking about just top dressing with a solid slow release fertilizer, does anyone think that will work?

I'd say chances of finding bare root stock in good condition at this time of year are slim to none. Most plants are setting blooms now and getting ready to start producing fruit. Bare root is used for dormant plants - strawberries should not be dormant at this time of year!! FWIW, my local nursery gets in bare root strawberries by the bushel in early February. But they immediately pot them up - 5 plants per pot. That is really the only way to protect those tiny root systems from drying out and the plants dying or being damaged by folks rummaging through a bin of bare root. That way, the plants can be sold well into the season (or until they run out) without concern for their health and viability.