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| Glossy red, long-necked fruit, Ozark beauty has a very mild, sweet flavor. Very productive everbearing variety will bear fruit in late spring and again in fall. Plant with June-bearing 'Cardinal' to extend fruit season. |
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Landscape Uses, Planting and Care
- SITE: Strawberries require direct, full sunlight for best production. Plant babies as soon they arrive — our plants are fully hardened off and able to survive spring frosts. Choose a sunny location in your garden with a soil pH of 6-6.5 (slightly acidic), and avoid planting where tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant, raspberries, or black berries have grown within the past three years, as they can host fungi like Verticillium wilt, and attract insect pests that build up in the soil. Protect strawberry plants from deer, who love to eat fresh young plants early in the season.
- PROPAGATION: Strawberries propagate themselves by sending out runners. These can be used to renew the strawberry patch. Allow them to root and then transplant to a new strawberry bed.
- PLANTING & CARE: Wet plants before planting in a shallow hole level with the surrounding soil surface. Mulch is easier to apply before planting, and can be straw or wood chip over newspaper or cardboard. Weed mat is not recommended since strawberries send out runners that will need to make contact with soil to self-propagate. Pinch off all flowers the first summer to allow energy to go into the development of runners. Cover strawberry bed with straw in fall to protect from freeze and thaw cycles. Remove mulch after last frost in spring and place into paths between rows. June-bearing varieties will produce a vigorous crop of delicious fruit in the early summer of the second year, followed by heavy runner production. Plant with everbearing variety for continuous strawberry production.
- FERTILIZING: Feed with top-dressing of compost or liquid organic fertilizer in spring to boost plant vigor during flowering and again after fruiting to encourage healthy runners.
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