Thompson & Morgan breed pink-flowered strawberry
The pink-flowered Just Add Cream strawberry has taken the gardening world by storm after eight years of intensive breeding and development work. Thompson & Morgan created Just Add Cream, adding wonderful flavour and high yield to a pink-flowered variety for the first time. Although they look nice, pink flowers can often signify poor taste and give low crops. Just Add Cream has a real strawberry taste and aroma, with productive, attractive plants that suit smaller, modern gardens.
The T&M team took existing pink types and crossed them with traditional strawberries. The crosses (2,000 plants each year) were then re-crossed with modern everbearing varieties to get the best flavour. Make the most of summer fruits with fruity cake recipes.
Compact and early flowering
Just Add Cream is compact and early-fruiting, producing few runners in favour of more fruit – up to 1kg per plant. It will keep cropping until autumn. Fruits combine the sweetness and size of home-grown strawberries with the taste of woodland or alpine strawberries.
The flavour is stronger and more stable than types with a similar aroma, like Mara des Bois and Charlotte. In blind taste tests, 11 different varieties, including Mara des Bois and Mieze Schindler, were trialled. They received points from one to three for texture, sweetness, juiciness and appearance. Just Add Cream was the overall winner.
Just Add Cream strawberry aroma
T&M plant breeder Charles Valin said: “I set out to add flavour to the pink-flowered strawberries. The results have been way beyond my expectations. The strong alpine strawberry aroma shocks your taste buds and takes you back to childhood memories of your very first taste of a strawberry.
“You can both smell and taste the perfume. Those who have tried it are amazed by the intensity of its aroma and flavour. Many people have actually told me it is the best strawberry they have ever tasted. The flavour is really very special.”
For tips on how to grow strawberries, visit www.thompson-morgan.com/growstrawberries.
UPDATE: Strawberry Just Add Cream is now available widely.
