Sweet Anticipation: Strawberries

Right now, when frosty mornings are still to be expected, gardeners need to exercise a little patience before thinking about spring planting, even here in the temperate Bay Area. But if you’re already having sweet dreams of strawberries and cream, it’s not too soon to plan your planting: we have our bare root plants and have already started growing them for you.  We’ll be offering them for sale on the very first day of spring, March 20, at our Pop-Up Marketplace and Plant Sale.

Strawberry plants are either June bearing or everbearing, and we’ll have both varieties available. If you’re an “every morning on my cornflakes” kind of strawberry consumer, you’ll want an everbearing variety, so you can harvest a handful of berries all summer long to top a tart or slice over your French toast.  If your plans include making preserves or freezing a supply, June-bearing varieties produce a single heavy crop ideal for those projects. 

Even now you can be thinking about how and where to plant your strawberries. Some varieties are great in hanging baskets, with cascading growth that is very showy; having them in baskets also helps protect the plants and fruit from most garden pests. (Not birds though!) 

If you plant either variety this year, it’s best to pick off the flowers so they don’t put energy into producing fruit the first year. That way, you will have amazing crops next year and several  years to follow.  Keep in mind that strawberry plants don’t last forever, though, and will usually start to decline after three or four years.  If you are already growing strawberries, maybe this year would be a good time to replace half the plants and then next year, replace the other half. 

Eclair Strawberry Plants 

A June bearing strawberry with exceptional flavor. This variety has medium – large size berries that are extra sweet and fragrant. Great for freezing, fresh eating and canning. Produces longer in the season than other spring bearing varieties. 

 

Hood June Bearing Strawberry Plants 

Hood is one of the sweetest June bearing strawberries. Hood produces a large round berry and is considered one of the best fresh eating and table quality strawberries. It is also a fine preserve and jam berry. It is resistant to Root Rot, Mildew, and Red Stele. Popular home garden and you pick variety. 

 

Fort Laramie Ever Bearing Strawberry Plants 

Great in hanging baskets, for fresh eating and jams and jellies. Produces runners, blooms and large firm scarlet berries, even on the runners. Great choice for hydroponic growing. 

 

Quinault Everbearing Strawberry  

A very popular everbearing strawberry variety. Large sweet berries have great flavor. Produces from June till frost. Great for hanging baskets and containers, producing berries even on unrooted runners. A home garden favorite and very disease resistant. 

More to explore

IRS Guidelines for Gifts from Donor Advised Funds to Support MAGC Events

Thank you for your interest in giving to the Marin Art & Garden Center events from your Donor Advised Fund (DAF) or Family Foundation.

We sincerely appreciate your generosity and support!

To ensure your gift follows the current IRS guidelines for DAF/Family Foundation support of an event, we would like to share the below guidelines with you.

  • Raffle tickets, tickets to galas and other special events, auction items, and benefits conferred in connection with a DAF/foundation grant are not permitted.
    • IRS has specifically ruled that fair market value associated with fundraising events cannot be separated, a practice known as “bifurcation.”
      • For example, with Edible Garden, if the price of the ticket is $200 and the FMV fair market value (non-tax-deductible amount) is designated to be $50, the donor must pay from sources other than her DAF/foundation for the full value of the ticket ($200) and not just for the non-tax-deductible amount ($50).
    • We recommend you confer with your financial advisor to confirm if any of these examples of how donors may still use their DAF to support an event would work for you:
      • A donor could sponsor the event, and not attend, and pay fully out of the DAF/foundation.
      • A donor could sponsor the event using DAF/foundation funds and attend by purchasing an individual ticket through non-DAF/foundation funds.
      • A donor could sponsor the event, join the event as a guest of another donor/table guest, and pay fully out of the DAF/foundation.
      • A donor could sponsor the event and host the afforded number of people at their chosen level as long as they pay for the seats at the lowest ticket price ($200 for Edible Garden) outside of their DAF.
        • As an example, a $1,500 sponsor that covers 2 guests, could pay for their sponsorship with $400 from a different source of funds, and then give an additional gift of $1,100 out of their DAF.

 

Please email Tod Thorpe, Director of Development at tod.thorpe@maringarden.org to discuss your gift to Marin Art and Garden Center