Looking to grow strawberries at home? New Roseberry variety works great in gardens, hanging baskets

Saturday, July 09, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: strawberries, gardening, health news

(NaturalNews) Backyard gardeners will be delighted to know that a new variety of strawberry has hit the cultivar scene. Premiering in the online journal HortScience, the "Roseberry" strawberry plant is highly versatile, it blossoms beautiful flowers, and of course it produces delicious and highly aromatic strawberries

Since conventional strawberries are often rife with pesticides and other harmful chemical residues -- they are, in fact, one of the worst fruits to be purchased conventionally (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/) -- growing them in your backyard or in hanging pots is a great way to obtain clean, pesticide-free fruit.

According to the report, Roseberry strawberry plants are winter hardy, which means they survive winters without becoming damaged, as long as they are covered with a protective layer. As part of their research, scientists successfully preserved Roseberry plants throughout the winter by covering them with about four inches of straw.

"The plants are ... vigorous with a spreading habit," said Shahrokh Khanizadeh, scientist and corresponding author of the report. "They produce multiple crowns and few (three) stolons in the first year of growth, but a medium (five) number of stolons are produced in the second and subsequent years."

In their first year, Roseberry plants bloom their beautiful pink blooms in early July, and in the following years as early as mid-May. The flowers will continue to bloom throughout the summer, and will last until the first frosts occur.

Roseberry fruit is dark red and "very tasty," according to reports -- and because of the special way the variety grows and develops, it works great in hanging pots and even as a groundcover.

"The fruit is a bit soft like 'Rosalyne' but has an excellent, very aromatic flavor with medium sugar and acidity," added Khanizadeh.

For more information about Roseberry, visit:
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/p...

Sources for this story include:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07...