Having been out of town for 18 days this April—first to the 2016 California Spring Trials and then to Costa Rica—both Boston and my small garden plot had gone through lots of changes.

Tree leaves were unfurling, tulips were blooming, mint was taking over my garden (that’s another story). Best of all, my strawberry plants were growing like gangbusters. While they don’t die back all the way here during the winter, they do go dormant and look “offline” from about November through March. They had plenty of strong, new growth plus little leaves emerging from the plant’s rosette center. A few even had some flowers. Maybe I’ll be blessed with some ripe strawberries before June.

Delizz Strawberries

While at the Spring Trials a few weeks ago I got a chance to check out a new variety of strawberry called Delizz, and it also happens to be a 2016 All-America Selections Award Winner—so you know right there this strawberry will work great in the garden.

Delizz is bred by a Dutch company, ABZ Seeds. They specialize in developing commercial varieties of strawberries (and still do). In recent years they’ve started to introduce varieties that would also work well for homeowners. And what’s the difference? Smaller plants and fruits but producing fruits constantly throughout the season. Flowers that are other than white (pink and red) and are also fragrant. Varieties that grow well in containers or hanging baskets. All of these attributes (well, maybe not the smaller fruit size) make the plant more appealing to folks like you and me. And it’s a great bonus they the different flower colors make them a very pretty plant, too.

The Variety

Back to Delizz and what makes it a wonderful strawberry plant for you. The plant holds its white flowers and fruit-producing stems upright toward the center of the plant until they become the berries become ripe and heavy enough to hang downward. If growing in a garden plot, this attribute is good for keeping the berries off the ground (and away from slugs and other critters) for as long as possible. You can also keep fruits off the ground by layering some straw around the base of the plants—the berries will lay on that instead of the ground, and be unreachable by the slugs.

The erect nature of the stems and leaves also makes them great for the commercial grower because fewer of the stems will be damaged during shipping. That is, you’ll receive a better-quality plant at the store.

In addition to a gardener-friendly growing habit, Delizz is also a cinch to grow. Just apply an all-purpose fertilizer once each week as you fertilize the rest of your garden. Plus the fruits are delizz-cious!