8 Delicious Strawberry Varieties to Grow at Home
Discover our top choices for easy-to-grow plants, high berry yields and deliciously sweet strawberry flavor
Lauren Dunec Hoang
May 21, 2018
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and in-house designer for Sunset's Editorial Test Garden. Her garden designs have been featured in the Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping, Sunset Western Garden Book of Easy-Care Plantings (cover), Inhabitat, and POPSUGAR.
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and... More
There’s hardly anything sweeter than the first sun-ripened strawberries of the season. If you have a sunny spot in your garden, or room for strawberry pots on the patio, growing your own berries is both easy and rewarding.
Among the many types available, the eight strawberries mentioned in this article are some of our top picks for productivity, beauty, resilience and flavor. You’ll see some favorites, including the popular ‘Allstar’ and ‘Seascape’, as well as a new variety called ‘Sweet Kiss’ and a prized French variety with delicate, sweetly fragrant berries.
Getting started: How to grow strawberries
Among the many types available, the eight strawberries mentioned in this article are some of our top picks for productivity, beauty, resilience and flavor. You’ll see some favorites, including the popular ‘Allstar’ and ‘Seascape’, as well as a new variety called ‘Sweet Kiss’ and a prized French variety with delicate, sweetly fragrant berries.
Getting started: How to grow strawberries
Two types of strawberries. Strawberry varieties generally fall into two categories, depending on when berries ripen.
- June-bearing: Strawberries that fall into this category produce one large crop of berries in spring or early summer and then a few berries intermittently for a few months after. Plants are generally robust and spread quickly by runners.
- Everbearing and day-neutral: Plants of both types are usually a little bit smaller and less vigorous than June-bearing ones. Everbearing strawberries, and related day-neutral cultivars, produce berries for longer periods than June-bearing plants, but without one bumper crop. Although it depends on the variety and temperature they’re grown in, everbearing strawberries, in general, fruit heavily in spring and early fall, with fewer berries through summer. Day-neutral strawberries ripen in early summer and bear continuously, but unevenly, through fall.
Photo from Ball Horticultural
1. ‘Sweet Kiss’: Delicious flavor with high berry yields from early summer to fall. Growers are calling ‘Sweet Kiss’ the “ultimate home gardener strawberry,” with exceptional flavor and heavy berry production. The new hybrid was first introduced midway through 2017, making 2018 the first full growing season it’s on the market.
1. ‘Sweet Kiss’: Delicious flavor with high berry yields from early summer to fall. Growers are calling ‘Sweet Kiss’ the “ultimate home gardener strawberry,” with exceptional flavor and heavy berry production. The new hybrid was first introduced midway through 2017, making 2018 the first full growing season it’s on the market.
Photo from Ball Horticultural
The good-sized ruby red berries have received high marks in blind taste tests for their flavor. ‘Sweet Kiss’ plants are disease-resistant and everbearing, producing a large number of berries from early summer to fall. Plants reach 6 to 8 inches tall, spread to 24 to 36 inches wide and are well-adapted to a wide range of climates.
Where it will grow: Plants are hardy down to USDA Zone 4 (find your zone)
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Everbearing
The good-sized ruby red berries have received high marks in blind taste tests for their flavor. ‘Sweet Kiss’ plants are disease-resistant and everbearing, producing a large number of berries from early summer to fall. Plants reach 6 to 8 inches tall, spread to 24 to 36 inches wide and are well-adapted to a wide range of climates.
Where it will grow: Plants are hardy down to USDA Zone 4 (find your zone)
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Everbearing
Territorial Seed Company
2. ‘Rainbow Treasure’: Tasty fruit on one of the prettiest strawberry plants available. Perfect for a hanging basket, container arrangement or the front of a flower border, ‘Rainbow Treasure’ produces multicolored white, rose pink and coral flowers, plus sweet, fragrant cherry-red berries on a single plant.
This everbearing strawberry plant bears continuously from early summer to fall and has a creeping habit — perfect for filling in as an understory plant around raspberries or other edible plants.
Where it will grow: Zones 4 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Everbearing
This everbearing strawberry plant bears continuously from early summer to fall and has a creeping habit — perfect for filling in as an understory plant around raspberries or other edible plants.
Where it will grow: Zones 4 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Everbearing
Territorial Seed Company
3. ‘Tristar’: Delicious, fragrant, versatile berries. With their firm texture, fragrance and a quintessential sweet strawberry flavor, ‘Tristar’ make excellent backyard berries that can be eaten fresh, cooked or frozen for later. Berries are small to medium in size. The plants are also beautiful, with glossy, serrated leaves that form compact mounds about 12 inches wide. Try growing ‘Tristar’ strawberries in the ground, in a container or in a hanging basket in a sunny spot.
Where it will grow: Zones 4 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Day-neutral
Where it will grow: Zones 4 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Day-neutral
Territorial Seed Company
4. ‘Seascape’: Bright red berries from early summer to fall on exceptionally heat-resistant plants. ‘Seascape’ is a go-to strawberry for home gardeners who experience hot summers, as plants can tolerate baking heat better than others. The hardworking plants are also disease-resistant, thrive both in the ground and in containers and grow well in a wide range of regions including Canada, Hawaii, and throughout the continental United States. The jewel-colored berries ripen from early summer to fall with large conical-shaped fruit that has an excellent flavor. Plants reach about 12 inches tall and spread up to 2 feet wide.
Growing region: USDA zones 4 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Day-neutral
Growing region: USDA zones 4 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Day-neutral
W. Atlee Burpee Company
5. ‘Mara Des Bois’: Small berries with exquisite wild strawberry flavor, beloved by chefs. The star of a French breeding program, these tiny strawberries bring the delicious flavor of wild strawberries to the home garden. French chefs, as well as Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, serve these prized berries in small dishes with a side of cream or sprinkle of sugar as a dessert. A single bowl of these delicate, penny-sized strawberries has enough sweet strawberry fragrance to perfume a room. ‘Mara Des Bois’ plants stay smaller, 8 to 10 inches tall and wide, and tolerate some shade better than most.
Where it will grow: Zones 4 to 7
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full to partial sun
Type: Everbearing
Where it will grow: Zones 4 to 7
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full to partial sun
Type: Everbearing
Photo from Bonnie Plants
6. ‘Allstar’: Reliably produces large, sweet strawberries in early summer. This June-bearing strawberry reliably produces a bumper crop of large, deliciously sweet berries in early summer. Well suited to warmer growing areas, including southern regions of the United States, ‘Allstar’ is considered by many to be an all-around winner for home gardeners. Plants are moderate growers, reaching 8 to 10 inches tall and 18 inches wide, and are disease-resistant.
Where it will grow: Zones 6 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: June-bearing
6. ‘Allstar’: Reliably produces large, sweet strawberries in early summer. This June-bearing strawberry reliably produces a bumper crop of large, deliciously sweet berries in early summer. Well suited to warmer growing areas, including southern regions of the United States, ‘Allstar’ is considered by many to be an all-around winner for home gardeners. Plants are moderate growers, reaching 8 to 10 inches tall and 18 inches wide, and are disease-resistant.
Where it will grow: Zones 6 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: June-bearing
Photo from Bonnie Plants
7. ‘Quinault’: Large, conical strawberries with excellent flavor and soft texture. This everbearing variety developed at Washington State University is well adapted for the Pacific Northwest but can grow well in a wide range of climates, including as an annual in Alaska. The fruit of ‘Quinault’ is large and tasty, with a softer texture than ‘Tristar’ and others. Plants form mounds 8 to 10 inches tall and up to 18 inches wide and are fairly disease-resistant.
Where it will grow: Zones 4 to 9
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Everbearing
7. ‘Quinault’: Large, conical strawberries with excellent flavor and soft texture. This everbearing variety developed at Washington State University is well adapted for the Pacific Northwest but can grow well in a wide range of climates, including as an annual in Alaska. The fruit of ‘Quinault’ is large and tasty, with a softer texture than ‘Tristar’ and others. Plants form mounds 8 to 10 inches tall and up to 18 inches wide and are fairly disease-resistant.
Where it will grow: Zones 4 to 9
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Everbearing
W. Atlee Burpee Company
8. ‘Chandler’: Excellent flavor and production on plants that thrive in California and Southern regions. Developed in California, this reliable June-bearing strawberry has been widely adopted by home gardeners looking for a berry with excellent flavor. Berries are large and jewel-toned red, and plants produce a heavy crop in June and continue fruiting more sporadically throughout the summer. Mature plants grow 8 to 10 inches tall and up to 18 inches wide and thrive in warmer regions, including California and Southern states.
Where it will grow: Zones 5 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: June-bearing
Where it will grow: Zones 5 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: June-bearing
Where to purchase. You can buy the strawberries listed in this story, as well as other varieties suited to your region, at local nurseries, farmers markets, mail-order catalogs and online. Territorial Seed Company, Bonnie Plants, Burpee and Johnny’s Selected Seeds offer the strawberry varieties mentioned in this story, as well as others.
Growing tips. Strawberries thrive in full to partial sun (for alpine varieties) and in rich, quick-draining soil. If your native soil is heavy clay or slow to drain, amend the bed with organic material before planting, and create a mound about 1 foot higher than ground-level to facilitate drainage.
Strawberries also thrive when grown in raised beds or containers. Plant so the plant’s crown is just above soil level. For the sweetest berries, wait to harvest until they turn bright red.
Learn more about growing strawberries
Houzz readers: Tell us, have you grown strawberries? What’s your favorite variety?
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Strawberries also thrive when grown in raised beds or containers. Plant so the plant’s crown is just above soil level. For the sweetest berries, wait to harvest until they turn bright red.
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Houzz readers: Tell us, have you grown strawberries? What’s your favorite variety?
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There is always indoor potted!
I had never heard of rainbow treasure. looks like the prefect choice for terrace or balcony ! My mother has a real garden, he has several varieties among which Mara des bois... delicious !
I grow awesome strawberries, this yr. in a hanging basket! We are getting huge strawberries, and lots of them! Great article!