One of the neighbouring raised beds in my Burnaby community garden has 2 strawberry plants which have been producing generous quantities of berries all summer long. Can anyone suggest what variety they might be? Would I be able to buy plants somewhere at this time of year to have better fruiting next summer?
Those strawberry plants are probably a "day neutral" variety. The ones I know best are Hecker, Tristar, and Seascape, all good varieties for this area. Seascape has larger berries than the other two but is not as productive. This year I also tried Eversweet for the first time, and it did not do as well as the other varieties in my garden.
I've only seen strawberry plants for sale in the spring, although some places might have left over potted plants in the fall.
I think I've seen fruiting stock offered here in hanging baskets within recent weeks. Of course, what is available there depends on what growers serving that market are producing - and local vendors are buying and presenting to the public.
The vendors at the farmers markets here in Vancouver, and the one I asked on Whitbey Island, have all said their everbearing ones are Albion.
Best to get the bare root plants in the spring. Usually cheaper. I have some eversweet variety that produced abundant amounts of berries but I also have some albion varieties which produced very large and sweet fruit. Next spring I'm going to get more albion plants. http://www.florissa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/strawberries-EN.pdf
