Climbing strawberry Mount Everest plants - Fragaria ananassa

The 'Mount Everest' climbing strawberry is a perpetual variety, with the particularity of producing long stems to be trained on a support or allowed to cascade down a hanging basket. It yields large, red fruits of very good taste. This unique variety, which saves space and facilitates picking, will reach a height of 1m (3ft) to 1.5m (5ft). Planting is preferably done in autumn for a harvest from June to October.

Strawberries can be consumed in multiple ways: they can be eaten fresh, with sugar, cream, or sliced thinly and dried before being incorporated into muesli or yoghurt. If you have a bountiful harvest, consider making jams, coulis, tarts, ice creams, or sorbets. You can also freeze strawberries.

There are three categories of varieties:

- Woodland or perpetual strawberries, producing small fruits from June to October

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

- Perpetual large-fruited varieties (like 'Mount Everest'), flowering twice a year or continuously, producing large fruits from June to October

Indeed, the wild strawberry or woodland strawberry, present in Roman times and the Middle Ages, was crossed in the 18th century with a species brought back from Chile, resulting in, through successive selections, different large-fruited varieties.

The strawberry is a hardy perennial belonging to the Rosaceae family. This variety has a climbing habit, with persistent trifoliate, ovate, and dentate leaves. Its long stems can be trained on a support, in a pot, or in the ground, or allowed to cascade down a hanging basket. It produces small white flowers with a golden heart that will transform into large red fruits. Botanically speaking, strawberries are considered pseudocarps, with the achenes (seeds) appearing on the surface of the flesh.

For harvesting, pick the fruits as they ripen, every 2 or 3 days, ideally in the morning. Strawberries are delicate, so pick them with their calyx 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 soft to the touch. Strawberries are rich in vitamins and minerals. They can cause urticating reactions for some people as they stimulate the release of histamine in the body.