I posted a thread earlier about the best toms to get and got a stunning response,took me aback actually the amount of choice there is.

The wife has asked me to post a similar question about strawberry`s.Which is the best for flavour and not too difficult to grow?

I've been growing Flamenco strawbs for the last 2 years and, although they don't seem to have produced runners, the fruits are really sweet and tasty, they've over-wintered well and if grown in a pot on gravel nothing seems to eat them other than me

Sounds a winner to me Samwise.

I've grown Cambridge Favourites for years. It is now considered old fashioned (there is a newer strain - Cambridge Vigour) but it actually tastes like a strawberry and it stays firm when cooked for jams or for tarts. Not a huge size of fruit but we love them.

It makes no difference which variety in this house they don't get past the children who rampage every day eating them off the plants. I don't really find much of a difference in them really either, maybe I just scoff them too fast! lol

You might be best getting some early, mid season, and late varieties so you can spread the season out a bit longer.

Our main considerations have been:
1. Disease resistance.
2. Lots of runners.
3. Vigorous growth.

We've been especially impressed with Pegasus and Symphony in recent years.
They've not been troubled by any diseases or pests (except slugs), they're very vigorous, produce lots of runners and the fruit tastes good.
While Symphony is a fairly normal strawberry in taste and texture, Pegasus is very soft-textured - which takes a little getting used to - and Pegasus is very sweet, so that nobody needs sugar.

We have also gone for the early-fruiting varieties; Alice and Christine (not had Christine very long, so still "experimental".

We also have a small number of some Hapil, since our soil is poor, dry and sandy - and Hapil is reputed to do relatively well in such conditions.

We also have some Florence. They seem to sprea and form new crowns in a circle around the old crown, more like chives or alpine strawberries, rather than produce runners. Ours have not been troubled by pests or disease, but they lack vigour. Taste is fairly good.
It's perhaps worth considering, if compact and non-invasive types are desired.

I haven't bothered with strawberries this year, since last year was so disappointing (lots of foliage, no fruit - I blamed the rain ) - but we do have wild strawberries carpeting part of the garden: tiny fruits but lovely flavour, and good groundcover if you don't mind removing excess runners.

I have Pegasus, Honeoye, Alice and Florence. Out of those Alice is my favourite; no troubles, lovely strawbs that survived the rain last year much better than the Pegasus fruits did, and nicer flavoured than the Honeoye. Florence comes in a very close second.

we have hapil and cambridge favourite but if you want flavour garguette (early) and mara des bois (perpetual) are out of this world -- you can get them from ken muir.

Try these: Mara De Bois

Beautiful wild strawberry taste like tiny alpines but bigger. I got some of these after seeing them on Jamie (oliver) at home. He reccommended them and they are beautiful. Get them from Ken Muir.

Such a big choice.
I`m sure the wife will love some of those suggested.Thanks guys.

I have 3 varieties at the moment:
Senga Gigana-it's supposed to be a giant strawb,yes it's big but not huge.Sends out shocking amount of runners.Fruit is juicy and moderately sweet(or maybe I'm in a rush to eat fruit before slugs)
Alice-got from Suttons last year,don't expect any fruit this year,growing well
Elsanta-as above,came from e-bay,growing well
Honeyoe-got last year from e-bay,plants were half dry at arrival and didn't survive the winter.

The last one is wild/alpine strawberry(I don't know what it is to be honest).I found it last year under the hedge-1 smallish plant and planted with another strawbs.As a reward I got very bushy plant which grew into 7 plants(separated them).It didn't send out any runners but all the plants were growing from a big wooden root.Any ideas?

I read somewhere how to tell the difference between wild and alpine strawberries - it's to do with whether they propagate themselves by seed or runners or both. But... I can't quite remember which is which! I'll see if I can find it.

Originally Posted by coreopsis

Honeyoe-got last year from e-bay,plants were half dry at arrival and didn't survive the winter.

Funny that you mention loss of your Honeoye due to drying out.
We bought our original batch of Honeoye from a nursery (along with some other strawberry varieties), but we forgot to water them for several days and then lost half the Honeoye's, but the other varieties seemed fine.
We still have a few Honeoye in a small patch, but I didn't mention them in my earlier posting because of being unimpressed with them.

It wasn't seed neither runner.I remember planting 1 small plant which grew into big clump,I was sorting oot strawberry bed and decided to divide it-whatever it was.no runners,no seeds,just about 10 cm wooden root and 7 plants growing out of it