"framberry" - a new fruit?

[veggiechicken]

Is that Strawberry White Soul, Bins? I have some seeds of it from MoreVeg just waiting for the right day to sow them (it is a fruit or a flower on the looney calendar?)

[binley100]

Haven't a clue VC just said white strawberries on the packet .....they are plants not seeds ...(Ithink we're on a flower day )

[veggiechicken]

If we're talking about strange hybrid fruits we should also mention the Worcesterberry and the Jostaberry - crosses between gooseberries and blackcurrants - with Worcesterberries retaining the thorns and Jostas smooth stemmed. I'm sure there's more to it than that but as I have both plants I only remebber them as the thorny-one and the not-thorny-one!

[binley100]

I fancy getting a jostaberry ......*goes off to hunt one down

[veggiechicken]

Description from MoreVeg
Strawberry White Soul
Creamy white fruit, sweet and aromatic with, I think, a hint of pineapple. The fruit is among the largest white fruit produced by alpines. It is a vigorous grower to about 25cm tall but runnerless and well behaved. As with our other strawberries, these are perfect for small spaces and edging borders or veg beds. Price for 50 seeds. 50p
My looney problem (that nobody seems to be prepared to answer) is - are strawberries a fruit or a flower - cos a fruit is something with seeds on the inside and strawb seeds are on the outside.
Sincerely yours,
Perplexed of Sunny South Wales
PS Bins - I do not expect you to answer this as we're both muddling along together.

[binley100]

No runners then ....damn ...

Ah but they have a flower before they have the fruit .......the fruit is the seedcase of the flower (now I think I'm talking twaddle so I'll shut up )

[bazzaboy]

Thanks Binley, there's clearly no end to this... I was in Nottingham today (rare trip to the Big City) and in Waterstones spied a book "Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden" (by Lee Reich, republished by Timber Press 2010 from various versions previouly published in 1991, 2004 and 2008). Lee Reich is an American horticulturalist and as you can well imagine "off the beaten path" isn't in it, here you meet up with Juneberries, Paw Paw, Lingonberries, Actinia, Kaki, Elaeagnus, Maypop, Che, Asian Pears, Jujubes, Shipova and Medlar (actually got one of those!) Need a bigger garden....

[veggiechicken]

Bins, D T Brown are selling pineapple flavoured white strawberry Anablanca and you can buy 12 runners - so you may be in luck!
and for Bazzaboy, they have Pluots and Apriums and a red-fleshed fig that tastes of strawberries.

[bazzaboy]

Thanks VC, I am tempted but have just read (leaping around the Intenet a whole lot faster than I ever manage at the gym) that Pluots and Apriums do not take kindly to espalier treatment so haven't really got space for them... Could stick 'em on the allotment I s'pose...ooooooooo, posh allotment!! But the other trouble there, apart from being a bit exposed winter-time, is how do you protect them from birds if they're largish trees? I have two cherry trees and have yet to eat a cherry (birds); when the fig tree is productive (not every year) the birds get there first too; I had two (cob) nut trees and have yet to eat a nut (squirrels...). What I do get is loads of nut seedlings where the squirrels have buried the good ones, the ones they leave on the tree or ground are empty, where's the nut? I think the nut is the person left holding the empty shell... It's so much easier (and more productive) shopping at Tesco where your packet of nuts, when you get it home, at least has still got nuts in it!

These Pluots and Apriums etc are far more common than I'd ever realised previously - Wiki lists about FORTY different varieties...! But I've never seen them in the shops, what's the matter with Waitrose, they missing a trick to sell over-priced fruit?

The DT Brown catalogue you recommend is extraordinary for various hybrid berries I never knew existed, thanks VC.... And nice blog too, a challenge indeed!

[binley100]

Bins, D T Brown are selling pineapple flavoured white strawberry Anablanca and you can buy 12 runners - so you may be in luck!
and for Bazzaboy, they have Pluots and Apriums and a red-fleshed fig that tastes of strawberries.

Temptress................

[bazzaboy]

Bins, the afore-mentioned Lee Reich goes on at some length about white strawberries, usually "alpine" in origin, usually "strew less" (I always thought the name "strawberries" came from the practice of putting straw down to protect the fruit from mud but evidently not, it comes from the runners originally being called "strews"...). He traces earliest written reference to white strew-berries to 1536 and distinguishes 4 varieties (creamy yellowy white) as Bush White, Pineapple Crush, Alpine Yellow, and Alpine White. Apart from the interesting taste he cites two advantages of these white alpines: a) they are usually larger than their red alpine counterparts and b) because they are white they are largely ignored by birds! That's some recommendation!

[binley100]

Don't like the taste of alpine strawbs .........b@gger

[bazzaboy]

Don't like the taste of alpine strawbs .........b@gger

But perhaps ANABLANCA (which Reich doesn't list...) aren't alpines... Think you'd have to ask DTB...

[bazzaboy]

Don't like the taste of alpine strawbs .........b@gger

And just think what you've saved....! Extra week in Greece!!

[bazzaboy]

No runners then ....damn ...

Ah but they have a flower before they have the fruit .......the fruit is the seedcase of the flower (now I think I'm talking twaddle so I'll shut up )

The strawberry..... fruit, flower or seed????? If it helps Wiki says:

"The strawberry is, in technical terms, an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries but from the "receptacle" that holds the ovaries. Each apparent "seed" (achene) on the outside of the fruit is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it. In both culinary and botanical terms, the entire structure is considered a fruit."
Garden strawberry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia