Nothing beats eating fresh fruit from your garden, but not everyone has space for fruit trees, or even for fruit bushes. If that sounds like you – or if you just adore fruit and want more – then strawberries are the way to go. These are compact plants that need little room, and they can be grown right among your flowering plants. For beauty and delicious fruit, we recommend the Rosy Belle™ Strawberry. This ever-fruiting variety carries berries from June to September, so when you need some fruit – there it is. With its trailing clusters of fruits it is perfect for pots and window boxes, and perfect for hanging baskets. There is always room for it, even in the smallest garden, and it’s not just the fragrant red fruit you grow it for, because the pink flowers are beautiful, making this plant worth growing just for flowering beauty.

Growing the Bushel & Berry® Rosy Belle™ Strawberry

Size and Appearance

The Rosy Belle™ Strawberry is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows as a clump of leaves rising from a compact base, the ‘crown’, at ground level. Each leaf rises on a long stalk to a height of about 6 inches above the ground, then divides into three leaflets. These are oval, with a short pointed tip and an edge that is cut into a coarse saw-tooth look. Each leaflet is 2 to 3 inches long, with prominent veins and a deep-green color, lighter on the underside. By late May long flowering stalks will have risen from the base as well, which divide into two or three stems, and keep dividing to create an open cluster of many flower buds. These open into flowers that are almost an inch across, with 5 broad petals and a golden center of stamens. The petals are pink, not white as strawberry flowers usually are, so the flowers make a great showing in the garden or in pots.

Each flower develops into a fruit, which quickly grows into a bright red strawberry which is entirely red, without the white ‘shoulders’ seen in some varieties. They have that delicious strawberry fragrance, and a sweet, delicious flavor. As fast as the first flower clusters mature into strawberries, more are produced in this everbearing variety, and fruit continues to develop all the way into September. Your plants will never be without ripe or developing fruit.

As well as flower clusters, strawberry plants produce long stems from their crown, which produce a cluster of leaves at the end, a baby plant. These ‘runners’ continue to grow, producing more young plants. To maximize fruit production it is best to remove runners as they develop, but you can also peg them to the ground, or the top of a pot of soil, and grow new plants to increase your supply of plants.

Using the Bushel & Berry® Rosy Belle™ Strawberry in Your Garden

You can grow the Rosy Belle Strawberry directly in your garden beds, spreading some straw or dry leaves over the soil to protect the fruit from contacting the ground. This variety is also ideal for growing where it can spill over an edge, such as a retaining wall, and also for growing in pots, window boxes or hanging baskets. You don’t even need a garden to enjoy strawberries – a balcony or even a window ledge is all it needs.

Hardiness

The Rosy Belle Strawberry is hardy from zone 6 to zone 9, growing best in warmer zones.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

To develop properly and ripen its fruits, the Rosy Belle Strawberry should be grown in full sun, or with no more than an hour or two of shade during each day. The ideal soil is rich and well-drained, with plenty of organic material added. For planters and pots use regular houseplant soil or potting soil for outdoor planters. Plants in containers should be fed regularly with a liquid tomato food, or a similar high potassium fertilizer.

Maintenance and Pruning

Apart from removing excess runners, and flowering clusters once you have picked the last berries, not much care is needed. Water and fertilizer regularly, allowing the soil to dry just a little before watering again. Pests or diseases are unlikely, but any insect pests can be controlled with our Neem Oil Spray, a non-toxic natural pesticide. To maintain maximum production over the years, replace plants that have grown for three summers with new plants grown from the runners.

History and Origin of the Bushel & Berry® Rosy Belle™ Strawberry

The garden strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa, is a hybrid plant, created in France in the 1750s by crossing together the American wild strawberry, Fragaria virginiana, with the from eastern North America and the beach strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, first found in Chile. This hybrid replaced the wild strawberry for fruit production in gardens. Some strawberries produce just one crop a year, in June, while others, like the Rosy Belle Strawberry, are ‘everbearing’ and continue to flower and fruit all season. Officially known as ‘Frisan’, this plant was produced by crossing two older everbearing varieties together. The breeding was done by ABZ Strawberries, a specialized Dutch breeder of seed-grown F1 strawberry varieties. It was protected in 2014 by European Plant Breeder Rights, and is awaiting approval for a US patent. It is released in America by Star® Roses and Plants as part of their Bushel & Berry® range of fruit bushes for home gardeners, with the trademarked name of Rosy Belle™.

Buying the Bushel & Berry® Rosy Belle™ Strawberry at the Tree Center

Each plant of the Rosy Belle Strawberry is carefully grown from seed to guarantee that it conforms to the original breeding, and every batch of seeds recreates the original cross. Watch strawberries cascade from baskets on your balcony, and pick fresh, sun-ripened berries to pop straight into your mouth. The Bushel & Berry® range is winning a big following with home gardeners, so don’t miss out on the fun and flavor – order now.