Common Name: strawberry
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Rosaceae
Zone: 3 to 9
Height: 0.50 to 1.00 feet
Spread: 0.50 to 1.00 feet
Bloom Time: April to October
Bloom Description: Pink with yellow center
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Medium
Suggested Use: Ground Cover
Flower: Showy
Attracts: Birds
Fruit: Showy, Edible
Tolerate: Deer
Culture
Grow in average, medium moisture, well-drained soil in full sun. Prefers organically rich, sandy loams. Strawberries are a high maintenance fruit crop which can be grown all over the United States. Growing recommendations can vary considerably depending upon the climate, however, and varieties are often regionally adapted. Grow only certified disease-resistant cultivars. University Extension, University of Missouri-Columbia publishes a pamphlet called "Home Fruit Production: Strawberries and Their Culture" (G 6135) which provides some basic information on growing strawberries in Missouri and is available for inspection or purchase at the Center for Home Gardening.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Strawberries are a mainstay of the home fruit garden and are grouped into Junebearing and everbearing types. Junebearers produce one crop per year early in the season (typically June). The berries of Junebearers are normally larger than the berries produced by everbearing or day-neutral plants. They are sensitive to the length of day, and send out runners in spring as day length increases. Everbearing types produce a first crop in spring and then subsequent crops at six week intervals thereafter throughout the summer and into fall. Unlike junebearers, everbearers are not sensitive to the length of day. Both have five-petaled, white flowers with yellow centers. Flowers give way to large, glossy, red berries which mature in late spring to early summer. Some strawberries are grown for their showy flowers rather than their fruits and the flowers can range in color from deep, reddish-fuchsia to rose pink to white.
Genus name comes from the Latin word fraga meaning strawberry presumably from fragrans meaning fragrant in reference to the perfume of the fruit.
'Frel' is an ornamental strawberry that produces numerous small 5-petaled bright pink flowers (to 1.5" diameter) with yellow centers appear from late spring to fall above a clump of tri-foliate coarsely-toothed typical strawberry-like foliage which forms a bushy, compact, 8-15" tall mound. Flowers are only occasionally followed by small edible berries. This cultivar is the result of crossing the interspecific hybrid Fragaria × ananassa with Comarum palustre and backcrossing the resulting plants with the Fragaria parent five times. The genetics of the resulting plant are 96% Fragaria. Commonly sold at nurseries and garden centers under the name PINK PANDA. This plant is protected by patent number PP07598.
Problems
Strawberries are susceptible to a large number of potential diseases, including but not limited to: foliage diseases (leaf spot, scorch), root rots (red stele, black root rot), fruit rots (anthracnose, leather rot), gray mold and viruses. Tarnished plant bugs, mites, aphids, leafrollers, slugs, nematodes and strawberry weevils are occasional insect problems.
'Frel' has good resistance to the aforementioned diseases and insects.
Uses
'Frel' is an ornamental strawberry that was developed for use as a ground cover. Also suitable for use in hanging baskets and container plantings.