Blazepepper: First of all, are you talking about potted, growing plants, or bundled bareroot plants? In your zone, bareroots can be planted any time you can work the soil. Potted plants could conceivably suffer some damage from a late hard freeze, but probably not since strawberry plants are tough. You are introducing another factor by planting in baskets or planters hanging from your fence, since the whole thing could freeze in very cold temps. But my guess is you will not see that kind of cold where you live. So go ahead and plant if you have already purchased the plants. I tried the everbearing Quinault one season, and would not plant it again. Production was almost nil. If you want some real strawberries, plant a Junebearer like Earliglow. You will get at least 3 weeks of excellent berries. Planting whatever Home Depot happens to be selling is not always the best way to choose your strawberry variety. Look around at alternative sources on the net or elsewhere. Compare some variety descriptions. Since you will be living with your choice for at least one growing season, it makes sense to choose your first strawberry variety with care. My personal choice would always be bundled, bareroot plants, which are much cheaper per plant, and every bit as vigorous as potted berry plants. You do have to plant them promptly without allowing them to dry out. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Sorry I was so unclear. I think faster than I can write, so at times, my statements make little sense. I see the black raspberry question was answered, no they do not sucker. The farther you space red raspberries, the longer it will take to fill the space to form a solid row, but no matter how far, they will eventually fill the row. The 12 to 24 inch is not the space between the row, but how wide your planting should be, how wide the row should be. They grow in 4 directions, left, right, forward, backward. If your row is too wide, they tend to stay moist, which invites disease. Yes, any trellis method works. You can modify to fit your needs if you need to. Eskota mentioned Autumn Bliss. that was developed by Victoria Knight in the UK. I heard it was great! She also developed Valentina, an orange colored highly disease resistant, excellent tasting raspberry. Only sold in the UK, I would kill for a cutting!! I'm trying a number of new cultivars this year Double Gold - (planted last fall) Blush pink in color, excellent flavor Crimson Night - (planted last fall) Deep, dark red, excellent flavor this spring I will be adding... Rosanna - (From Italy) sweet as candy Honey Queen - ( a yellow out of Canada, very hardy, excellent taste) Polka - (Developed in Poland, rated very high) Black raspberries Jewell - rich taste, 7 ft cains, productive and vigorous Allen - sweetest of the blacks Purple raspberries Royality - can harvest when red, or wait till it's purple. Summer bearing Prelude - excellent early season variety Encore - excellent late season variety Taylor - said to be the best tasting raspberry Blackberries Navaho - upright thornless, great tasting, some say the best. Apache - upright thornless, larger fruit than other Arkansas thornless, erect varieties. Since these are upright, they will be trellised into a fan shape. Hybrids Loganberry - just because it is so unusual, 10 ft cains, unique flavor. Makes excellent jam, deep red Tayberry - The Tayberry is a cane fruit cross between an Aurora Blackberry and an improved tetraploid Raspberry. It was developed by the Scottish Crop Research Institute and is grown for its sweeter, larger, aromatic fruits that have an excellent flavor. The Tayberry are a beautiful bright purple color This post was edited by Drew51 on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 0:30

Just an update near the end of the season... My row of june-bearers (Quinalt, I think) only had 5 big-box crowns survive. I may have been able to save a few more, but this bed was part of our lawn in March, so I got behind on keeping up with the weeds in a 30" x 25' row for five measly plants. (They have since taken off with a little more attention and the daughters have almost filled in the entire area behind the espalier row, but just a few blooms and no berries that I've found.) As for the everbearers: the Loran and Tristan did very well in my raised beds as a border on the short sides of each bed and, despite a few small berries from dry spells, produced a few handfuls of berries a day in peak season. That is, if I could keep the birds and ground squirrels from sampling the ripe berries (The chickens were quick to scout the discarded berries behind the garden). The plants in-ground in our "lovely" clay soil didn't take off nearly as fast, but did end up producing a bit later. I ended up replacing all of the crowns in-ground with Loran and Tristan plants, and although the slugs snuck up on me last month after a week of torrential rains, we've had a handful of berries every day or so for the last few weeks. I should note that Tristan and Loran varieties are nearly runnerless and were well-behaved even in the raised beds. That may make renewal of the everbearing bed a little more challenging! I'll have to take a pic of the comparison between the everbearing row and the (5) June-bearing plants. I'm sure that letting the everbearers produce gave them a slower start, but the difference is comical! I have to say, I love the dark pink flowers on Tristan, but the berries are slender and pointed...I got much plumper and slightly tastier berries from Loran. Tristan also seemed to bear on longer stems and berries would often rot from touching the soil before ripening--I think they would be ideal for a hanging container, though. I do have some Captan for the fruit trees, but never did spray on a regular schedule this spring. They got some neem oil and then a couple spot applications of pesticide/fungicide when the japanese beetles started munching. The strawberries maybe got some overspray, but no direct application aside from a little Grass-B-Gon (Fusilade) on the most stubborn crabgrass. We also built a garden shed in the backyard in early summer and I'm still building decks and finishing the landscaping now that the garden has slowed down and the weather has cooled...I had a busy summer!

I've been growing strawberries for a few years, but only June bearing. I haven't tried everbearing yet. From my understanding you'll get a decent sized spring crop and then a small crop in the fall...I think its just too hot around here in the late June/July/Aug period to get berries (I'm just south of you in LSE). I do grow alpine strawberries, and they do bear in the spring and a few in the summer and then again in the fall. Yield is very low. I try to move my strawberry beds around if I can. I usually pot up runners (now is the time) and then I can plant the new plants in a new spot. I think 3 bearing years is tops. I know there is research out there showing just how large a drop in production occurs afterwards. I'd love to have a variety that fruits again in the fall, even if it wasn't a huge amount.