strawbs bargains

cootambear

kittie wrote: »

my mara des bois from ken muir are fantastic. I only received them a month ago and they have settled so well. What a bargain those runners were. In utter contrast, I received 15 slimy pathetic plants from chris bowers and I paid top price for them thinking I would be receiving 15 fantastic pot ready plants. They were the worst plants I have ever received by post from anyone. Anyway I`ll skim over the fact that customer service were disgustingly nasty, I got a refund. I put all the plants in the soil and there are tiny signs of life from 3 from 15.

Cootambear, shall I persist with them or am I risking disease? Should I take the lot out and start with a clean slate by getting plants from ken muir? Your advice would be welcome

what variety did you get from bowers?
in any event, I would dig out the dead ones and chuck em (no composting to prevent disease).
now is not the time to buy new plants I`m afraid, wait until autumn.
let the 3 live, unless they are crap varieties.

I have year two maras flowering, boy my mouth is watering

julie_toots

Homebase are selling all their strawberry plants off at half price near us. Don't know if it's the same at all the stores.

[Deleted User]

one each of norfolk nectar, cirano and calypso. I think I`ll pot those 3 today, get rid of the rest and put some phacelia seeds on the patch as green manure. Then I`ll be ready for autumn

now the nice bit is choosing what varieties

newsgroup_monkey

julie_toots wrote: »

Homebase are selling all their strawberry plants off at half price near us. Don't know if it's the same at all the stores.

That's where I get mine.

Apart from paying 48p for 6, I've never paid more than 30p for a plant though. I'm not sure about half price.

The beauty is, I've got at least half a dozen different varieties so they're all at different stages of fruit

cootambear

How is everyone faring? I noticed today a big cluster of green berries on one of my plants. My 110 cambridges (year 1), all all vigorous.

cootambear

newsgroup_monkey wrote: »

That's where I get mine.

Apart from paying 48p for 6, I've never paid more than 30p for a plant though. I'm not sure about half price.

The beauty is, I've got at least half a dozen different varieties so they're all at different stages of fruit

amen to that

I have about 9 varieties now - none of course of the turnip flavoured Elsanta (which accounts for 80% of supermarket strawberries in the UK).

the prices they try and sometimes sell them for - £1.50 and up - are crazy. I will only pay top price for Maras or Gariguettes - until I can propogate enough of them myself of course.

hardpressed

Picked 4 lovely large ripe strawberries today, summer must be on the way althought I'm sitting here wearing 3 jumpers and have the heating on!!