We were away in Dorset for a few days over half-term. During this time some of the strawberry runners that I had ordered weeks ago arrived. I wasn’t sure how long they had been sitting in the box (it could have been up to 4 days) so I thought I’d better plant them straight away. The variety is Sonata which were voted Best Mid-Season Strawberry during a Which? Gardening trial earlier this year. This picture shows 2 or 3 of them.
To be honest, the runners didn’t look that great but then they are right at the end of the season and so some of the leaves are turning brown. In the past people must have been a little surprised by their condition because the planting booklet that came with the runners said not to worry about how they looked and that they would look much better once planted! We had 11 runners which I planted in long containers, just like our home-grown strawberry runners. And I did remember to label them so that I know which are which.
They’ll probably take a few days to perk up and then they’ll be ready and waiting to leap into action early next spring. And I really must give our lawn a final mow!
Strawberry Runners Sonata
Home-grown Strawberry Runners
I decided it was time to plant the strawberry runners I’d saved earlier in the year into proper pots. Up until now they’ve been in an array of different sized containers, and many of them were beginning to outgrow their temporary homes. Our old strawberry plants (which were about 4 years old) went to the compost heap and the new ones have now taken up residence in the long containers which we grow our strawberries in. All in all I planted 24 new plants. Using our own strawberry runners like this has saved us about £25, as that’s what it would have cost to buy some strawberry runners. (I have actually bought some strawberry runners too because I wanted to get an earlier variety, but they haven’t arrived just yet!) I gave all our strawberry plants a general tidy up as well, cutting off any old and brown leaves, and removing any runners that we weren’t using. So now they’re all ready to go in the spring, which does seem an awfully long time away!
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