Has anybody got much fruit out this variety before..or eaten some?
I've had clump of pink panda for years..I know it is 'ornamental strawberry' , or strawberry hybrin, grown for its flowers but it does occasionally fruit too.
Mine have never managed to produce anything worth of even trying to eat, but this year..must be the amount of rain we've had, there is few strawberries that are swelling up nicely.
I wonder if this is the year for a first taster.. ;D Bless the rain.. ;D 8)
I have pink flowered strawberries, but don't know their name. They are smaller fruited than normal strawberries and the fruits don't get very dark red either. I agree, they do much better in wet years. I usually get a reasonable amount in October when it is rainy, but this year I have a few strawbs growing earlier too.
The best of this type I have seen in Wisley, planted in a pot and obviously 'coddled' and that was fruiting quite well in August. In principle they are perpetual. I guess with a bit of selection we could end up with an ornamental that also fruits well.
Perhaps we could save the seeds from one of the strawberries (the tiny yellow seeds are stuck outside the fruit and can be scraped off and dried). Then we could grow a selection of plants from these seeds and choose the best yielding ones for vegetative propagation.
Project for another year?
I can certainly save some seeds.. ;) ;D I've just read about how pink panda's and other few hybrids were 'made'.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_%C3%97_Comarum_hybrids
Makes you wonder if they only choose cultivars for the showy flowers only or if they tried at all to get 'best of the both worlds'.
I grew Florian from seed. They fruit from the runners so can be attractive tumbling in a window box.
Fruits are ok, this year they are bigger than normal. Flowers lovely.
I was not going to bother but will put some runners in pots.