How we checked this site
All 111 facts, the source for each, and how many checks it passed.
How it works
Each fact is written in our own words with its source open beside it. Our build script keeps a copy of the text of every source and checks that the key words and figures in each fact really appear there. If a check fails, the site won’t build. Anything that isn’t a sourced fact, such as a view or a joke, is labelled Our opinion or comes from Useless. The drawings are our own and simplified.
Known disagreements and stories
- When the garden strawberry began. Britannica says the large garden strawberry originated in Europe in the 18th century; the Science History Institute and the University of Minnesota tell the story of how, through Frézier’s Chilean plants crossing with a Virginia strawberry. These fit together; the exact date and place of the first cross aren’t recorded in our sources.
- What Frézier was. The Science History Institute calls him an officer in the French Army Intelligence Corps posing as a merchant; the University of Minnesota calls him an engineer who posed as a tourist. We say intelligence officer.
- Where the name comes from. Many people link it to straw mulch; the University of Minnesota thinks it more likely comes from an Old English word for spreading. We give both and say which the source prefers.
- What kind of fruit. Britannica’s strawberry article calls it an accessory fruit; its berry article calls it an aggregate fruit. Both agree it is not a true berry.
What we left out
- A widely repeated story says one of Frézier’s ancestors was knighted, and named after strawberries, in the year 916. We couldn’t find good evidence for it, so we leave it out.
- The RHS’s history page on strawberries was unavailable when we checked, so the history comes from the Science History Institute, the University of Minnesota and Britannica.
- We don’t give health advice. Britannica notes that strawberries are rich in vitamin C, and that is as far as we go.
- The patch planner is our own arithmetic from the RHS spacings, not a quoted fact.
The log
| # | Fact | Source | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Strawberries belong to the genus Fragaria: more than 20 species of flowering plants in the rose family, grown for their fruit. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 2 | Wild strawberries are native to the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere; garden varieties are now grown all over the world. | Britannica: Strawberry | 2 passed |
| 3 | The garden strawberry is Fragaria × ananassa. The RHS calls it sweet, juicy and easy and rewarding to grow. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 4 | A strawberry is a low-growing plant with a crown in the middle, from which the leaves grow. The leaves usually have three toothed leaflets and are often hairy. | Britannica: Strawberry | 2 passed |
| 5 | The flowers are usually white, only rarely reddish, and grow in small clusters on thin stalks. | Britannica: Strawberry | 2 passed |
| 6 | As the plant gets older, the mother crown sends out runners. They touch the ground and take root, making new plants. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 7 | A single mother plant can produce more than a hundred daughter plants in one season, according to the University of Minnesota. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 1 passed |
| 8 | Botanically, a strawberry isn’t a true berry. Britannica calls it an “accessory fruit”: the red flesh is the swollen base of the flower, called the receptacle. | Britannica: Strawberry | 2 passed |
| 9 | The little “seeds” on the outside are really the true fruits, called achenes. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 10 | Britannica’s article on berries puts strawberries with raspberries and blackberries as aggregate fruits, not true berries. | Britannica: Berry (plant reproductive body) | 1 passed |
| 11 | Cranberries and blueberries, on the other hand, are true botanical berries; so, botanically, are bananas, grapes and tomatoes. | Britannica: Berry (plant reproductive body) | 2 passed |
| 12 | Strawberries are rich in vitamin C. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 13 | A strawberry spends about four weeks developing, but once ripe it can soften and get blemishes within hours. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 14 | Unlike apples and bananas, which store starch as they grow, a strawberry plant puts sugars straight into its fruit. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 2 passed |
| 15 | Strawberries give off more than 360 different scent chemicals, such as esters and alcohols. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 16 | There are three main types to grow: summer-fruiting, perpetual and alpine. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 17 | Summer-fruiting strawberries are the most popular and have the biggest fruit, with a short, heavy crop lasting two or three weeks. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 18 | Early, mid and late varieties of summer-fruiting strawberries crop between early June and early August. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 19 | Perpetual strawberries, or everbearers, give small flushes of fruit from early summer to early autumn, sometimes until the first autumn frosts. The crops and fruits are smaller. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 3 passed |
| 20 | Alpine strawberries, also called wild or woodland strawberries, give small crops of tiny, scented berries on and off through the summer. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 21 | Alpine berries are usually red, but a few varieties have white or yellow berries. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 22 | Alpines grow in sun or light shade and can be left to fend for themselves. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 23 | Grow a mix of types and you can pick home-grown strawberries from early summer through to autumn. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 24 | The RHS suggests looking for varieties with its Award of Garden Merit (AGM), given to plants that did well in its trials. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 25 | ‘Cambridge Favourite’ AGM: mid-season, very popular and reliable, with good disease resistance. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 26 | ‘Honeoye’ AGM: early, with plenty of large, firm, well-flavoured fruits. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 27 | ‘Hapil’ AGM: early to mid-season, with heavy crops of large, glossy, sweet berries. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 28 | ‘Florence’ AGM: late-season, with firm, well-flavoured fruit and good disease resistance. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 29 | ‘Finesse’ AGM: a perpetual, with sweet, tasty berries from early summer to early autumn. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 30 | ‘Pegasus’ AGM: late-season, with large, sweet berries and good disease resistance. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 31 | ‘Symphony’ AGM: late-season, with glossy red berries and excellent flavour. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 32 | ‘Rhapsody’ AGM: late-season, with large, glossy red berries and some disease resistance. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 33 | ‘Vibrant’ AGM: an early variety that may give a second crop in good conditions. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 34 | The musk, or hautbois, strawberry (F. moschata) is still grown in some places for its musky smell and flavour. | Britannica: Strawberry | 2 passed |
| 35 | Summer-fruiting and perpetual strawberries are sold as potted plants or as bare-root runners; alpines can also be grown from seed. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 36 | Bare-root runners look like little clumps of roots with very few leaves. That is how they should look. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 37 | Cold-stored runners, on sale from spring to early summer, can fruit about two months after planting. Plant them straight away. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 38 | Buy plants from a reputable supplier, so the variety is true to type and the plants are free of disease. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 39 | The best times to plant are spring, late summer or early autumn. Plants put in during August or September have time to settle before fruiting the next year. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 40 | Strawberries like fertile, well-drained, slightly acidic soil. On poor or heavy clay soil, raised beds are better. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 41 | They grow best, and taste sweetest, in a sheltered spot in full sun, though they will put up with some shade. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 42 | Before planting, weed the ground and dig in two bucketfuls of well-rotted organic matter, such as garden compost, per square metre. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 43 | With bare-root plants, trim the roots to 10cm (4in) if needed and spread them out in the hole. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 44 | Depth matters. Plant the crown too deep and it will rot; too shallow and the plant will dry out quickly. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 45 | Space plants 35–40cm (14–16in) apart, in rows about 75cm (30in) apart. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 46 | Strawberries are traditionally grown in rows in their own bed, but they also make a good edging for vegetable beds or flower borders. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 47 | They are easy to grow in pots, growing bags, hanging baskets, troughs and tubs. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 48 | Containers avoid the soil diseases that build up in strawberry beds, and slugs and snails are less likely to reach the fruit. Vine weevils can be a problem, though. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 3 passed |
| 49 | Traditional strawberry pots, with holes around the sides, look attractive but can make it hard to keep plants healthy and productive. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 50 | In a container, plant with the crown level with the compost and space plants about 20cm (8in) apart. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 51 | Under cloches, strawberries fruit at least a week earlier than unprotected plants; in an unheated greenhouse about two weeks earlier. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 52 | Indoors, pollinate the flowers by hand with a soft paintbrush, or take the covers off during the day so insects can reach them. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 53 | Alpine strawberry seeds germinate at about 18°C (64°F), but germination can be slow and patchy. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 3 passed |
| 54 | A strawberry bed usually stays healthy for up to four years. Replant every three or four years, in a different place. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 3 passed |
| 55 | Water new plants regularly while they settle in, and all plants in long dry spells. Hanging baskets dry out fastest. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 56 | Try not to wet the crown or the fruit when watering, as that can lead to fungal problems, especially grey mould. Water in the morning, not the evening. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 57 | Plants in good, mulched soil rarely need feeding. In containers, feed every fortnight in the growing season, switching to a high-potassium feed when the first flower buds form. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 3 passed |
| 58 | Put straw under the plants when fruits start to form. It keeps the fruit off the damp ground, so it stays clean and dry and is less likely to rot. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 59 | Wheat straw is fine, but barley straw is softer. Take the straw away in autumn, when it can harbour fungal diseases, slugs and snails. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 60 | Perpetual strawberries planted in spring settle in better if you remove the first flush of flowers. Leave the flowers on cold-stored runners. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 61 | Strawberry plants are hardy, but if frost is forecast when they are in flower, cover them overnight with fleece, hessian or an old bedsheet. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 62 | To stop birds eating the fruit, cover the plants with taut netting on a frame before the berries ripen. Chicken wire also keeps squirrels off. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 3 passed |
| 63 | To make new plants, peg runners into 9cm (3½in) pots of compost with U-shaped wire about 15cm (6in) long. Late summer is ideal. Cut them from the parent once they have rooted. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 4 passed |
| 64 | Perpetual strawberries make fewer runners than summer-fruiting ones, so new plants often have to be bought. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 65 | Pick only fully ripe berries, bright red all over: they don’t ripen any more once picked. The warmest part of the day is when they taste best. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 66 | Eat them as soon as you can, because ripe strawberries don’t keep long. Frozen ones lose their shape but are still good in smoothies and desserts. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 67 | After a summer-fruiting crop, cut the old leaves off about 10cm (4in) above the crown so fresh leaves can grow. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 68 | Vine weevil grubs love strawberry plants and are a bigger threat in containers, but they can be kept in check with biological controls. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 2 passed |
| 69 | Vine weevil grubs are plump, C-shaped, white and legless, with light brown heads, and up to 10mm long. They eat roots, so plants wilt and die. | RHS: Vine weevil | 2 passed |
| 70 | Adult vine weevils are dull black beetles about 9mm long that come out after dark and nibble notches in leaf edges. | RHS: Vine weevil | 4 passed |
| 71 | Grey mould is caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea. On strawberries it causes a soft brown rot, often as the fruit ripens. | RHS: Grey mould | 2 passed |
| 72 | Grey mould spreads fastest in humid conditions, so it is a particular problem under glass. | RHS: Grey mould | 2 passed |
| 73 | Black eye is frost damage: the middle of the flower turns black while the petals stay white, and that flower won’t make a strawberry. | RHS: Strawberry black eye | 2 passed |
| 74 | Flowers in tight bud are fairly resistant to frost; open flowers are the most at risk. Avoid frost pockets. | RHS: Strawberry black eye | 3 passed |
| 75 | Spotted wing drosophila, a small vinegar fly first reported in Britain in 2012, is on the RHS list of common strawberry problems. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 1 passed |
| 76 | Its female has a saw-like egg-laying tube that pierces the skin of fruit, so, unlike our native vinegar flies, it can damage nearly ripe and ripe, unblemished fruit, strawberries included. | RHS: Spotted wing drosophila | 3 passed |
| 77 | The RHS lists strawberry as occasionally or slightly affected by replant disease, when a new plant struggles in soil where the same kind grew before. | RHS: Replant disease | 2 passed |
| 78 | Slugs and snails aren’t all bad: they recycle dead leaves and are food for birds, beetles and reptiles. | RHS: Slugs and snails | 2 passed |
| 79 | The RHS’s list of common strawberry problems also includes strawberry viruses, verticillium wilt, fruit aphids and phyllody, where flower parts turn into leafy growths. | RHS: How to grow strawberries (RHS Grow Your Own guide) | 4 passed |
| 80 | In Europe and Russia, the small woodland strawberry and the musk strawberry had been grown for centuries. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 1 passed |
| 81 | The Chilean strawberry had been grown by native peoples in Chile for almost 1,000 years. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 1 passed |
| 82 | In 1712 King Louis XIV sent Amédée-François Frézier, an officer in French Army intelligence, to Chile and Peru, where he studied Spanish forts while posing as a merchant. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 2 passed |
| 83 | Frézier wrote that the Chilean berries were “as big as a walnut, and sometimes as a hen’s egg”. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 84 | The Chilean berries were paler and less sweet than European ones. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 85 | He brought five plants back to France; one was planted in the royal gardens at Versailles. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 2 passed |
| 86 | The Chilean strawberry crossed with a strawberry from Virginia. All modern commercial strawberries come from that hybrid. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 2 passed |
| 87 | Britannica says the big garden strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa, began in Europe in the 18th century. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 88 | The French botanist Antoine Nicolas Duchesne named the hybrid Fragaria × ananassa, because it tasted a little of pineapple (Ananas). | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 2 passed |
| 89 | At the time it was called the pine or pineapple strawberry. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 1 passed |
| 90 | New varieties were being bred in England and other countries by 1800. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 1 passed |
| 91 | Most countries bred their own varieties during the 19th century, suited to their own climate. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 92 | Thomas Jefferson said it took 100 strawberries from his garden in Virginia to fill half a pint. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 93 | In London in 1680, a strawberry dish for seven wedding guests is said to have cost six shillings, about six times a labourer’s daily wage. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 94 | Crossing with the Chilean strawberry made strawberries larger. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 95 | The French word for strawberry is fraise, which sounds like Frézier’s surname. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 1 passed |
| 96 | The name probably comes from the way the plants spread. In Old English the berry was streawberige, and ‘strew’ and ‘straw’ could both mean to spread or scatter. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 3 passed |
| 97 | Many people think strawberries are named after the straw they are bedded on; others think of the straw colour of the seeds. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 2 passed |
| 98 | Strawberries and cream have been served at Wimbledon since the early days of the tournament, when the fruit was only in season around then. | LTA: Facts you didn’t know about Wimbledon | 2 passed |
| 99 | Wimbledon sells over 2.5 million strawberries every year, according to the LTA. | LTA: Facts you didn’t know about Wimbledon | 1 passed |
| 100 | In America, strawberry shortcake, made with sponge cake and whipped cream, is a traditional dessert. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 101 | Americans eat around 2.4 billion pounds of strawberries a year, more than six pounds each. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 102 | A 2019 study in California found that close to 44% of strawberries never leave the farm. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 103 | A strawberry-picking machine in Florida, the size of a school bus, uses 16 robots and can pick a plant clean of ripe fruit in about eight seconds. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |
| 104 | The woodland or alpine strawberry, F. vesca, grows across much of the Northern Hemisphere and has small, intensely flavoured fruits. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 105 | Common North American wild species include the Virginia strawberry (F. virginiana) and the beach strawberry (F. chiloensis). | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 106 | Wild strawberries grow in open woods, meadows, sand dunes and on beaches. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 107 | The Chilean strawberry probably first grew on the foggy west coast of North America; birds may have carried its seed to South America. | University of Minnesota, Minnesota Fruit Research: A spy, a botanist, and a strawberry (Emily Tepe, 2019) | 2 passed |
| 108 | Commercial strawberries are picked by hand straight into small baskets. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 109 | Because strawberries spoil so fast, farms are usually close to where the fruit is eaten or processed. | Britannica: Strawberry | 1 passed |
| 110 | Strawberries need relatively little fertiliser but are sensitive to drought. | Britannica: Strawberry | 2 passed |
| 111 | Ethylene gas, which speeds up the ripening of bananas, just makes strawberries age and soften faster. | Science History Institute, Distillations: The Ripe Stuff (Ute Eberle, 3 April 2025) | 1 passed |