hi i grow possibly over 100 varieties of strawberries, old heirloom strawbs are extremly difficult to locate,and in a small way working on hybridising varieties,i do have about 20-30 very very old sorts( mainly english/european) but
i have an old american variety called MARSHALL, which i belive was bred around 1890, so is around 120years old now, i can suggest some good strawberry books if your intrested, these books contain a lot of info on older type strawberries( inc prints,pictures which might help you indentify you berries)
, the berry you have pictured, is very intresting, speaking from the uk, most strawberries over the last 50 maybe more years are bred to be more conic shaped were as yours looks more oblate, and a pleasing pale red/orange and ties in well with your info that this berry could be 50-100 years old,( but berry shape can change in different climates) maybe try
getting it indentified by corvallis fruit research or some other expert, nice to see someone taking the time to look after the old sorts,
regards stewart

Hello Swaine. What are a few of your favorites for taste? Anything that stands out in those you grow?

Sorry for the off topic post btw.

hi, i prefer the small alpine strawberries due to there sharper taste,
the bigger ones, royal sovereign,cambridge favourite,marshmellow,cambridge late pine are my fav,(english varieties)
we have just started picking a heirloom madame moutot(france) that even my dad likes( and hes fussy about sweetness) i am working with a lot more heirlooms this year so will be running taste comparisons against the new varieties, have found good information that strawberry varieties can vary greatly in taste( abiet being the same varity) when grown in different states(u.s.a) be intrested to see if this held true in the u.k, stew

Thanks for the recommendations Stew, I'll be looking out for those varieties for the next time I buy, especially madame moutot.

I have thousands of alpine strawberries lining my paths here and growing wherever they can, it not only pretties up the place but my daughter spends ages clearing a patch of berries then looking under the leaves for any she missed, there's always another patch of them she never found too ready for her next hunt. I'm thinking about how I can get them to bear more fruit at the moment, if there's a heavy bearing strain I can introduce and I think all mine are cloned from one plant.

Apart from those I grow mostly cambridge favorite so I can see why you like them. To extend the season I'm trying calypso and judibell this year. So far I've only had 1 small calypso berry to try from these but it had a good flavour too. Hey, if you want to test out the variation in taste I'd be happy to grow more varieties here and send you some fruit. You can email me through GardenWeb if you want to do something like this, only too happy to oblige. :)

Hi
I recently recieved some plants from my father in-law, put them in a bed and let them do their thing. The plants are looking great (good size, plenty of berries per plant, lots of runners) but just aren't very big. They are mostly about the size of a dime. I am not sure as to what variety the plants are. Is there anything that I can do that will help them produce a little larger berry? I am not looking to grow giants just a healthier looking berry.
Also, I am new to growing strawberries but have been told that after a couple of years the plants will turn "woody" and I will need to let the runners grow up and get rid of the older plants. Is this true and if so what is the normal rotation/procedure for something like this?

Marcie, WI