Plant asap, fellow berry lover. Where you are, they are really best planted in the fall, but plants are hard to find then. The little guys are quite hardy, and benefit from as much head start on summer as they can get.

If you want them to be perennial, pick a site with partial shade, or grow them beneath something taller, like muscadines, figs or blueberries. I'm assuming you're in parts of Z8 that get really hot in summer, which is tough on strawberries. In a hot summer climate, you basically get them through summer, and then truly nurture them from fall to spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website