4 Flowers That Boost Early Strawberry Pollination and Have Medicinal Uses

I’ve been growing strawberries for years now and it wasn’t until recently, that something clicked for me. The best advice I was given is to plant blooming flowers around my strawberry plants to boost early pollination. It’s more than just planting flowers, it’s also strategically growing medicinal flowers around the garden that will benefit your homestead too.

These are the 4 flowers I’m growing in my strawberry beds to boost early season pollination and also how I’ll use the flowers for medicinal purposes.

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Table of Contents

Why Early Pollination Matters for Strawberries

There are two types of strawberries – June bearing and ever bearing. Learn more about the two strawberry varieties here.

Both varieties fruit in early summer (ie. June), therefore they rely heavily on early pollinators for full, well-shaped fruit. When there’s a lack of pollinators in May/June, misshapen berries occur and lower yields. Flowers will shrivel up, turn brown and fall off.

Therefore, attracting pollinators early in the season is vital to support your fruiting strawberry plants.

Why Medicinal Flowers Belong in a Strawberry Patch

While any type of early season flower works, planting early blooming medicinal flowers in your strawberry patch is especially a great idea and here’s why.

Most people have limited garden space, or try to keep as much of your garden together for watering/fertilizing ease. So integrating medicinal flowers in your beds will allow your space to do more than one job. One medicinal flower can benefit: pollinators, human health and soil health.

Gardening really shines when people are able to use plants for multiple purposes in one location. Think of basil: it protects tomato plants from pests while also works as a culinary herb and a medicinal herb (pain reliever).

Four Early Season Flowers to Plant with Strawberries

In theory you can easily buy blooming flowers from a nursey and plant them in your strawberry beds in early May. But choosing medicinal flowers that have more than one purpose is always my go to. Here’s the 4 flowers to plant with strawberries:

Violas (Viola species)

Violas are known as an extremely early blooming flower, they are low-growing and non-competitive. Which is the ideal flower to grow with strawberries that are also low-growing and spread fast with runners. Find more information about strawberry runners here.

This flower is known for it’s medicinal use in respiratory and lymphatic support. The leaves and flowers are edible and where the medicinal benefits come from. You can dry these parts of the flower to make a medical tea or a fun violet syrup.

Violas should be planted in the corners of the strawberry bed or in open spaces around the strawberries so the pollinators know where to go.

Lungwort (Pulmonaria)

Lungwort is one of the earliest nectar sources for pollinators and is especially loved by bees. Due to these facts, Lungwort is an excellent addition to your strawberry patch to increase early season pollination.

Medicinally, lungwort is used for lung and respiratory support, similar to violas, they can be dried and used in teas. These plants are ideal if your strawberry beds are in partial-shade as lungwort doesn’t like full sun spots.

Primrose (Primula)

Like the others, primrose is one of the earliest flowers to bloom in the spring and is well loved by pollinators. This hardy perennial requires little maintenance and has a long history in traditional herbal medicine.

Primrose flowers have traditionally been used in calming herbal teas like with chamomile, while the roots are used to support respiratory health. The roots are used as a gentle expectorant to help loosen mucus and support the lungs during illnesses. Thyme and mullein also work as expectorants while fighting an illness.

Plant primrose along the edges or corners of the strawberry beds so the strawberries can spread their runners freely without entangling with the flower.

Calendula (Pot Marigold)

Calendula is an awesome flower and could be excellent for your strawberries – if planted correctly. This flower is an early season bloomer, it’s cold-hardy so it should be started indoors and then transplanted in May/June for your strawberry plants. It’s bright orange blossoms are well loved by pollinators.

This medicinal powerhouse flower, is one of the most useful skin-healing plants, it’s blooms can be dried, placed into a carrier oil, then made into a salve for any skin ailments.

Calendula’s can grow rather tall, making it slightly harder to grow in the bed with strawberries. But placing them in an adjacent bed or in pots beside the strawberries will allow pollinators to find your fruit and pollinate for full fruit.

How to Plant These Flowers Without Hurting Strawberries

When strawberries grow all season long they produce runners, which then produce their own crowns and fruits. They are a sprawling species. When planting flowers along with strawberries there are some key points to remember

Plant flowers low to the ground so they don’t block out the sun and therefore pollinators
Plant the flowers near the edges and spaced out from the strawberries so runners and flowers don’t compete – crowding will do that and produce small yields for both your medical plant and strawberries.

Strawberries can grow in full-sun or partial sun. Being smart about the flowers you are growing with the strawberries will produce more fruit. Don’t place a full-sun, tall flower in your partial-sun strawberry bed – this will wreck havoc on your strawberries.

In Zone 5, we grow wild pansies (the same as violas) for their medicinal benefits and early season pollination benefits. The flowers will be started indoors 2 months before they are transplanted outside in the garden. This will give the pollinators lots of flowers to bring them to my fruits.

A Smarter Way to Support Strawberries and Pollinators

Companion planting has always intimidated me, the types of nutrients some plants provide others don’t need, etc. But for your strawberries – you don’t need dozens of companion plants, just a few well-chosen flowers will:

Improve pollination
Increase strawberry yields
Provide medicinal harvests (teas, tinctures, salves)

Always try to intentionally evaluate your space, don’t follow trends. Think about what you and your family need and pick the plants that will get you there.

Want to learn more about strawberries or companion planting? Here’s all our related content:

Final Thoughts on Flowers to Plant with Strawberries

Flowers are often seen as an after-thought in most gardens – I should know, I was like that too. But they’re seriously misunderstood, most of the time they provide some level of benefit, where that be medicinal, pest control, pollinator-friendly, or just for beauty.

If you’re growing strawberries at home, I hope you’ll heed this advice to try one of these medicinal flowers in your garden beds. You can explore all of our hands-on advice in our Berry Growing Guides, based on what actually works here on our homestead.

We are growing our website with more articles all the time, and we invite you to grow with us. If you have any questions about strawberries or would like to share some of your knowledge with us please leave a comment below. Happy Gardening!

Dina Wilson

Hi! I’m Dina, a mother, gardener, homesteader, and seasonal recipe creator. I love to share practical tips from my family’s homestead in Zone 5B. I write about medicinal herbs, gardening, and simple homemade recipes that support a self-sufficient lifestyle. Welcome to DBSFarmWilson.