Rich red in colour and silky sweet to taste, few fruits are as quintessential of a sunny summer’s day as are strawberries. If it is taste and packed in goodness you are after, we all know that nothing beats growing your own.
Known for being at the forefront of innovation and always happy to oblige, MayFord Seed will be offering strawberry seed to gardeners around the country, a South African first. And not just any strawberry. This is a high quality, world class strawberry variety that wouldn’t be out of place in the Royal Box at Wimbledon.
Strawberry ‘Florian’ offers up delightful, bright pink blooms that are followed by a heavy crop of perfectly sized, aromatic, red fruit with a distinct Japanese style flavour to them. Be ready to be amazed as the sheer volume and quality of the fruit, coupled with the unbelievable taste will blow you away. Sow in spring and harvest the delicious fruits from early summer right through until autumn.
Strawberry 'Florian' is an ever bearing variety that forms a compact plant just 35cm wide. The plants are ideally suited to being grown outdoors, either in their own row in a veg garden, or because their flowers and fruit are so attractive in your garden beds. If space is limited, you don’t have to miss out; ‘Florian’s’ compact form makes it perfect for container planting on a sunny patio. Because it fruits from its runners as well as the main plant, 'Florian' is ideal for growing in hanging baskets.
Top Tips
- Sow from early spring in seed trays using coir/peat or seedling mix.
- The seed is very small so cover lightly, press down and keep moist.
- Be patient as germinations takes up to 3 weeks.
- After about 8 weeks or when they are large enough to handle, the seedlings are ready to be planted out.
- Plant the strawberries in full sun in fertile, moist, well-drained soil and spaced 35cm away from each other.
- Keep the plants well-watered, particularly if they are potted up and feed every 2 weeks with a liquid fertiliser.
- To keep your plants neat, remove the runners from time to time. These can be planted in other parts of the garden.
- As the fruits develop, place dry straw or mulching material underneath them to stop to ensure unblemished fruit.
- If you have a healthy and hungry bird population in your area, it’s a good idea to put netting over the young fruit.
- Strawberries are ready to harvest as soon as they turn red and are slightly firm to the touch.
- When harvesting, cut, rather than pull, the berries off at the stem.
- For those with a sweet tooth, the Dutch put a little powdered sugar on strawberries to make them taste even better.
- Once the growing season is over, cut the foliage back and mulch around the plants.
MayFord strawberry seed are available from all good garden centres and selected chain stores. To check out MayFord’s complete range of products visit their website www.mayford.co.za.
