I did a google and read about this, sounds interesting, hopefully not a lot of hype. Do you know of any sources of plants in the United States.

Mark

i found these at my local nursery this year, and am trying them in stackable pots. they are purported to be very fruitful, and i believe it because they are already covered in blooms and baby berries. i have one that is just turning red, i can't wait to taste it! the plants seem resistant to disease, and are growing like crazy. more as they develop!

These taste wonderful. I had them in France several years ago. Does anyone have a source of plants???

All I know is that the regular Alpine Strawberries that I've grown from seed taste like berry flavored Koolaid - very fun to grow but not a ton of berries per plant.

i googled this

"Mara des bois" strawberry usa plants

and this looks possible

http://www.darbonne.fr/eng/liens_en.htm

they may have a growing nursery in the usa
i emailed and asked
mark

Here is a link that might be useful: try here

could not get meessage thru and explored web site does not look like any production un the usa
sorry

gardenbuddha and cedar: If you visit the place you got these plants, could you inquire their source? The plants seem to be available here and there in the US, but no one can seem to say who handles them. (Apparently they can't be ordered from sources outside they country.)

is there any chance of finding this berry, i really want some. google does not turn up anything . any one have a plant locator??

mark

Is it a variety of Fraises des bois? The description sounds similar -- small, intensely flavored fruits. If so, White Flower Farm has them as plants. Expensive, but they do sound good.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/cgi-local/search.pl?text=fraises+des+bois&dosearch.x=0amp;dosearch.y=0amp;dosearch=Go

Woops, I don't think I gave the right link. Try this one:

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/29201-product.html

No, the Mara des Bois is a bigger, standard-sized berry. Taste is similar though, I think.

Hines Nurseries from California claims to have them, but they have a really lousy web site aimed more at investors than customers (making one wonder how they expect to get investors), and you can't get much information from it -- like where their nurseries are, and so on. They are suppliers for other retail nurseries, I think, so maybe an e-mail to them could get some info. I didn't have the energy at the time I was trying to decode their site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hines Nurseries

Is it too much difficulty to get it from Canada? Or is it even possible? There's a nursery there that has a minimum order of 100 plants. They're near the bottom of the page in the following link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Luc Lareault Nursery

i sent them an e mail and asked if they ship to usa
mark

SORRY BUT SHIPPING LIVE PLANTS TO USA IS VERY COSTLY FOR SUCH SMALL
QUANTITIES CANADAIN COURRIER CO. REFUSE TO HANDLE THEM SO WE MUST SEND THEM
OUT BY REFRIGERATED TRANSPORT AND MINIMUM SHIPPING COST ARE BASED ON ONE
FULL SKID OF PLANTS.

at least they responeded.

i am going A Whole New World in Everbearing Strawberries

Everbearing strawberries have been with us for years  but not like Tribute! Before other berries set fruit, they must have lots of light over long days. But Tribute blooms and sets fruit without regard to the length of days and nights.
With Tribute, you pick your first crop in early spring. Additional crops are ready to pick at approximately six week intervals. Best of all, the "drop off" in berry size and quality thatÂs typical of other varieties doesnÂt happen with Tribute. In late summer and fall, berries increase in size and quality, making a whole new world of pick-ur-own and home plantings. Test plantings in milder climates have yielded crops as late as Thanksgiving.to try this in the hoop house

mark

You can ask a local nursery that already buys from Hines to order you some plants.

I live in the Rhone Alpes area in France. If you want and the law allows I can send you seeds of local varieties.
We wanted to grow some strawberry in a container and I was very disappointed to find out Mara des bois is not so good at least in my case as it hates calcium in the soil. For any other reason it seems nice but our water and soil are very very hard so it would be not recommended. For further explanations on French strawberry copy paste in a translator page
http://jardihaie.free.fr/potager/fraisier/fraise.htm

The google group recommended the Gento, rebunda and quatre saisons varieties as early, productive and good tasting. I will buy some gento tomorrow and my quatre saisons seeds didn't germinate yet (the seed may have been too old and not germinate at all) after 3 weeks of planting.

If you have any advice please post. They are my first strawberries and I only know what's available on forums.

Thanks

I've meant to post this for the last couple of years. . . . When I first found this thread, I ordered the Mara des Bois from Trish and these are some of the best strawberries I've ever had. Here in Colorado (zone 5) they've done really well and all the members of our culinary gardening group have replanted their strawberry beds with them! They're day neutral so they even continue to produce indoors in winter! Thanks Trish!

The only other place to buy them that I know about is White Flower Farm which charges an mere $125 for a strawberry jar with NINE plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mara des Bois

noursefarms.com have this variety if anyone is still interested. I plan on trying some this Spring.

Miller Nursery carries the Mara des Bois strawberry plants.

I just purchased plants of Mara de Bois strawberries from Burpee Catalog in Pennsylvania. Have strawberry jars to plant them in and will also put some directly in the garden bed.
I am looking forward to harvesting them:"Little jewels, as vibrant as any ruby..."

I just received live plants from Burpee. I found them in their "heirloom" section and am looking forward to growing them this summer. They are supposed to be the closest thing to wild strawberries without foraging through the countryside. I'm excited to see how they come out.

Dear members, MARA DES BOIS is a hybrid for Marionnet France, Jacques marionnet, http://www.marionnet.com/
I have been planting Mara des bois since 8 years, and it is the most delicious strawberry ever existed. I am an expert in organic strawberries, since 29 years, and never planted something like that. It is a high yield plant, but only for two short periods during summer. It yields about 1.2Kg per plant if well irrigated and having a well balanced nutrient. It adores organics, lot of irrigation but dry mulch because the fruit deteriorates quickly on humid soil. Mara des bois is an organoleptic strawberry, it affects our senses pleasantly. Take one fruit, well mature and place its trunk between your lips, without eating it. Smell it for about 15 minutes and you will feel more comfortable than taking any calming drug ever. Its strength is at the same time its weakness. It is so juicy, which makes it so tender and fragile for transportation. A great variety for self garden, but very unpleasant for shipping or selling. But I adore this fruit.

I put in 200 Mara's last year as a small trial. I was warned that this variety is very high maintenance. They are that for sure. This variety is such a prolific runner that they go everywhere. I mean everywhere. Unless you want to be trimming no less than five runners from each mother and the same number from any daughters you miss, you will get very small berries.

The flavor is very sweet. The closest taste that most people could relate to is the candy PEZ.

I will not plant them again. It is shame as I like them, but putting in a half acres of this variety would mean dedicating at LEAST one person to runner trimming duty every week. Seascape, Portola and Albion will be my day neutral workhorses this year. I had Seascape last year and it produced above my expectations. Very few runners and medium to large berries.

moon1234, I make strawberry preserves every year (I go to 'pick your own' places) and I want to plant some at home. I am looking for a variety with small, intensely flavored berries. I don't care for the huge fruited ones. Do you have a variety that you would recommend? I live in western Massachusetts, zone 6.

I like the old-fashion Ozark Beauty for my farm. Very sweet and various sizes, depending upon time in season, and age of plants. We got 6-7 years out of ours, before they gave up. Supposed to be Everbearing, but I only picked in May/June. By 7/4th, I was done, thank goodness I was tired of picking strawberries. I'm in Zone 5b, western Indiana.

They are a little harder to find, since they are not a hybrid, and been around for a long time.

Marla

Mara Des Bois has a unique taste. Some in my family did not like it as they thought it was too candy like.

If you want to make Jam you really should plant june bearing varieties. You want a large amount of berries over a short time. Jewel is one of the overall best varieties for taste, production and easyness for a beginner.

Mara Des Bois is more for people who want something high end/unique. Chefs like them because you can't get them in the store. Unless you plant very few of them or like to spend lots of time tending your berries I would steer clear of them. They will be gone after this year. I over winter day neutrals for one year, after that their vigor tanks.

I just purchased 25 Mara Des Bois plants from Miller Nurseries out of New York and they arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. They look very healthy and I will plant them soon. ALL of the items I have purchased from Miller's have been wonderful (apple trees, dwarf peach, paw paw, ozark strawberry, horseradish, blueberries). Although I haven't tasted Mara Des Bois yet, I am excited to try them. I will not eat grocery store strawberries as they are pathetic. A real strawberry can't be had in a chain grocery store. I'll let you know how my strawberry bed does this season.

I'm waiting for Mara des bois roots via mail in the US for spring planting. Sounds like the extra work to keep runners in check might give me something to do since I spend too much time tending my little garden bed anyway. For the last three or four years I have grown the day neutral mignonette strawberries which produce no runners and which are hardy and undemanding. So this move do a more demanding plant should be an interesting change for me (and I am excited to taste a Mara des bois berry this summer, I hope it will be more interesting than a chalky 'pez' as described above!).

Does anyone know of a source for Mara des bois in California?

I live on the East Coast but don't see if it offered round here. I found it on the webs in a U.S. sales site for 10 root systems. I grew it last year and am doing it again this year with gusto. Wonderful taste and no problems so far. Lots of runners produced but not many takers for Mara des bois, so most ended up in the compost.

okay, just ordered 10 root from hirts, via amazon...

I got 25 from Nourse Farms for $14. They sent 27 last week. All 27 of them have sprouted new leaves.

I bought 10 last year.. by the end of the year I had 50. They are coming up now in a new bed planted last fall.

I have been growing them for several years now, they are far superior in flavor and well worth the investment.

I found this thread while looking for information on Mara's runner production. I've had them for years, and they never set runners until this year - the clumps increased, like woodland strawberries. I wondered if the plants with runners were seedlings - I've got a patch of Earliglo about 30 feet away that could pollinate the Maras. And the Earliglo plants set a lot of runners. I was surprised that some folks had heavy runner production on the Maras. This hasn't been my experience.

There was a question about a variety for jam. I've found the best variety for freezing and jam to be Earliglo. It doesn't turn to mush when frozen, and the color, fragrance, and taste is wonderful. I've found some varieties take on a brownish hue when heated, resulting in a less than appealing look in a jar. Not Earlliglo. It's not a big berry, and the cap turns upward, but for flavor it's tops - as good, or better, than Mara.

I've had them for a few years now. They are the only variety I grow.

I have created several beds for Mara. I find them to be very aggressive.

I bought mine at Jung Seeds here in the States three years ago and planted them in the fall.

The next year, I planted the runners in another bed at a community garden. Unfortunately, these grew out of control. The first year they did very well. The next year, they were already much too crowded. At the end of that season, I removed at least 50 plants to try to start over.

I planted a new bed last fall with 9 plants; the ones that thrived and set 3 to 4 runners each in May. They are easy to control if they are spaced well enough, but have to be monitored!

I have a few Mara plants from Jungs. The first berries I would consider large, but they do decrease in size. The taste is only mild here.

16 year ago it was a new variety for USA. Are there any new observation on this variety and how many people keep growing it? It is true that it taste better than any other strawberry in the USA?

I am quite a bit late to the party but I am very excited to try this variety. This is the first year for me, starting from bareroot plants in late April. Almost there. The runners are numerous. From 25 plants that I have, I must have cut off four dozen runners over the past month or so.