Strawberry Mariguette plants (everbearing) - Fragaria ananassa

The 'Mariguette' is a perpetual variety of strawberry that offers good yields, combining the qualities of its parents 'Mara des Bois' and 'Gariguette': exceptional wild strawberry fragrance, earliness, and productivity. Large elongated fruits with a red-orange colour, reminiscent of 'Gariguette'. A remarkable new creation! Preferably planted in autumn for a harvest from May/June to October.

Strawberries can be enjoyed in multiple ways: they can be eaten fresh, with sugar, cream, or sliced thinly and dried before being added to muesli or yoghurt. If you have a bountiful harvest, consider making jams, sauces, pies, ice cream, or sorbets. You can also freeze strawberries.

There are three categories of strawberry varieties:

- Wild strawberries or four-season strawberries, producing small fruits from June to October

- Non-perpetual varieties with large fruits, flowering only once a year in spring and producing very large fruits around June

- perpetual varieties with large fruits, flowering twice a year or continuously, producing large fruits from June to October

Indeed, the wild strawberry or woodland strawberry, present during Roman times and the medieval period, was crossed in the 18th century with a species taken from Chile, resulting in, through successive selections, different varieties with large fruits.

The strawberry plant is a hardy perennial belonging to the Rosaceae family. This variety has a compact habit, with evergreen trifoliate, ovate, and dentate leaves. It produces small white flowers with a golden centre that transform into large red fruits. Botanically speaking, strawberries are considered pseudocarps, with the achenes (seeds) exposed on the surface under the skin.

For harvesting, pick the fruits as they ripen, every 2 or 3 days, ideally in the morning. Strawberries are fragile, so pick them with their stalks by pinching the stem 1 to 2 cm (0 to 1in) above it. The texture of the fruit is a good indicator of its ripeness. It should be firm and slightly soft when pressed with a finger. Strawberries are rich in vitamins and minerals. They can cause urticating effects for some people as they stimulate the release of histamine in the body.