Strawberry - Fragaria x ananassa 'Toscana' F1 - British Grown
Sprouts of BristolThis fruit plant will produce small, pink blossoms, followed by lovely speckled-ruby strawberries for you to pick. Hardy throughout most of the UK, down to -20°C.
Grow your own strawberries with this strawberry plant, the perfect opportunity to start your own fruit garden! Strawberries don't need too much space, and will be happy to grow in a nice sunny spot in the ground or in a container in your garden. In the first couple of years, it's a good idea to cut back the runners so your plant uses all of its energy on producing fruits for you; you can start letting it produce runners after this to get the plant to spread, once it's a little bigger and more established. There's plenty to enjoy with this plant too, from its star-like pink blossoms in spring to the fruit from late May onwards. Fruits can be a target for pests like slugs and snails, so you may need to protect your strawberries. You can also harvest the fruit when it's still white and pop it indoors in a sunny window to fully ripen to red, which will help stop it being eaten by the other inhabitants of your garden!
| Perennial | Fruit: bush/vine | Flowers in Spring, fruit in summer to autumn, foliage spring to autumn. |
Scientific Name
Fragaria x ananassa 'Toscana' F1 (strawberry plant, crossed with pineapple-like species, variety: Toscana, first generation hybrid)
Common Name
Strawberry, Garden Strawberry
Origin
There are native strawberries all over the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, including Britain; these strawberries are a cross between species from the Americas and Eurasia
Pruning Tips
Remove excess runners, especially while the plant is still small. Cut back old leaves.
Wildlife Value
Fragaria (wild strawberries) are great for pollinators, and provide forage for the Grizzled Skipper butterfly. Strawberries are pollinated by honeybees and bumblebees, and can attract Lassioglossum, Andrena, Halictus, Osmia and Nomada bees in the open.
Positioning
Full sun to partial shade
Water
Strawberries like their soil to be moist but not soggy, so make sure it's somewhere the water can drain from, and keep it watered in dry weather- especially when it's producing flowers and fruit!
Soil
Use fertile, moist, well-draining soil for growing strawberries.
Food
Put fresh compost through the soil before planting out to ensure your strawberry plant has enough nutrients. Fresh compost/ mulch annually should keep it happy and nourished!
Pet-safe
Yes- no toxicity reported, though it's best for the plant and your pets if they don't nibble too much!
Sprouts Top Tips
To protect your fruit, you can put netting around the plants in summer while they're fruiting, and surround them with straw or mats to prevent the fruit from sitting on bare soil (this is why they're called strawberries!). Alternatively, strawberries grow well in pots or hanging baskets, which will also help keep their fruit up off the ground.
Important Information
If you have any questions, please check out the below or get in touch via our contact formWe're devoted to sending our customers quality plants with the best service around. Every plant is backed by our 7-day guarantee, so they arrive in good health.
Our team takes extra steps when prepping plants for transportation, but they're still sensitive to changes, so there may be minor cosmetic issues. We always aim to photograph and disclose any flaws before shipping, but a living creature travelling across the country in a box can take a hot minute to adjust to its new life.
If you have any issues within 7 days of receiving your order, holler at our customer support team on our contact form with your order details and some pics of the issue. After the guarantee has expired, though, we can't refund as we can't guarantee care and environmental factors. If you repot the plant during the 7 days, the guarantee is void.
We have been sending plants up and down the country for many year now and we like to think we have our way down to an art.
We protect the plant from falling out of the soil with tissue paper and tape if needed, then we wrap the plant in corrugated cardboard, and sometimes we protect the leaves with extra tissue paper if required. This is then placed into a box and if there is any empty space, we fill this with void fill to stop the plants moving around inside the box. Sometimes we will write a note on your packing slip to water the plant on arrival, so please look out for this. This is due a freshly watered plant going in a box will not only be soggy, but as the plant is in darkness this can sometimes make the plant unhappy when just freshly watered.
If your plant arrives to you unhappy, please send us a photo of the plant and packaging if relevant straight away, so we can advise you.
Online orders are packed and dispatched within a few days. Usually depending on volumes, we aim to get your order dispatched within 1 working day. We have collections from Royal Mail 6 days a week so deliveries tend to be speedy.
Our standard parcel delivery service is £4.99 for Royal Mail Tracked48, you can upgrade to Tracked24 for £2.50.
We do offer a Tracked48 Large Letter option for £2.99, and Tracked24 for £1 extra, but this only applies to products less than 2.5cm thick.
*Deliveries 7 days a week only included Tracked24 parcels.
Link to your shipping policy
We get a lot of boxes, packaging and whatnot at Sprouts from all our various supplier's deliveries. We re-use this packaging material where possible, plus we take in donations from local businesses and customers to our shop to avoid excess packaging going to landfill. Sometimes your delivery might look a little different, or come in a branded box from another company, but rest assured the items inside are carefully packed with love and attention inside. We use paper tape and all our branded materials included are fully recyclable. Sometimes we use polystyrene, bubble wrap or plastic wrap in the packaging, all these items are not new and where possible, please use them again.
We have partnered with Zedify to offer low-carbon deliveries in Central Bristol for £6.99.
Zedify collect and deliver orders from us Monday - Friday and will usually deliver your order the same day its collected. If you place your order before 11am, we will aim to get it collected the same day but this isnt always possible. When you have received your dispatch email, Zedify should be delivering your order the same day, anytime before 6pm.
We cannot give an idea of time, but if you would prefer delivery on a certain date (Monday - Friday) please get in touch or leave a note at check out with your preferred delivery date and we will do our best to accommodate your request.
Zedify deliver to the following postcodes BS1, BS2, BS3, BS4, BS5, BS6, BS7, BS8 (1, 2, 3A - 3N, 4), BS9 (1,3,4).
Select click and collect at checkout to collect your order from our Bristol shop.
You will get an email when your order is ready to collect, where possible please come and collect your order the same day as we have limited space. If you are going to collect your order at a later date, please let us know in the message box at check out so we know when to expect you. Some items such as gift sets, kits and pre-order items may not be ready to collect the same day, again please let us know what day you would like to collect and we will let you know if there's any issues.
We do not offer free returns, but if you are unhappy with your delivery, please get in touch. If your parcel or order has been damaged, please take photos and send these over to our team so we can look into this for you.
If you have ordered an item and you would like to exchange it, we should be able to do this for you. There may be an extra charge for delivery, but get in touch to discuss. For plants there is a 7 day return policy and 30 days for everything else, apart from sale items which are none returnable.
You can return or exchange in our Bristol shop for free.
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