Differently Coloured Strawberries

When asked to think of strawberries, immediately plump, juicy, and red fruits with green leafy tops and yellow-ish seeds pop into your mind. But just like purple cabbage or orange cauliflower, strawberries can be bred to grow differently pigmented fruits, resulting in quite a few different coloured strawberries that you can plant in your garden, including white, rose pink and purple.

Strawberries are considered a very easy fruit to grow and therefore are very popular with most gardeners, who can grow them even in small garden beds. To break the mould of typical red strawberries, gardeners who seek variety (and a bit of a challenge) most commonly cross wild or alpine strawberry “off-types” and save the seeds from the subtly different hues to next season be surprised with oddly coloured strawberries. The process is repeated, and eventually, new colours are starting to show. Differently-coloured strawberries are not “Frankenfoods”. They are just rare combinations of fun genetics that challenge our perceptions of garden-fresh berries.

Typically, these different coloured strawberries cannot be found in stores but rather in the gardens of adventurous gardeners, or even in the wild.

‘White Alpine’

These white strawberries have been growing wild for hundreds of years. The original white strawberry, ‘White Alpine’ has been around for more than 300 years. This beautiful whitish-yellow strawberry came straight from mutated wild types that had lighter-coloured skins. The main reason for the white colour is that it does not have the ripening protein Fra a1) that standard red berries have, therefore they stay white throughout their ripening cycle.

Wild alpine strawberries or woodland strawberries (Fragaria vesca) grow throughout northern Europe and the lower elevations of the Alps. These small richly-flavoured berries have been wild foraged for centuries, however, gardeners and plant breeders have more recently begun to cultivate them as well.

‘White Alpine’ can have pinkish-red or yellow speckled achenes on the fruit surface. It is particularly popular in Japan and is becoming more widely available in speciality fruit circles of the western world.

‘White Soul Alpine’

The White Soul Alpine strawberries have flavours that remind of the tropics, like pineapple and coconut.

‘White Soul Alpine’ is the love child of the improved ‘Alpine’ seed varieties and can be described as the inheritance of gardeners. Different to most strawberries, the fruit is everbearing, grows about 12 cm tall and the fruit has a creamy white colour.

It is not easy to find seeds, but if you are serious about making this rear-treat part of your garden, you can source the seeds from some uncommon and heirloom seed companies.

‘White Pineberry’

White Pineberries are smaller than regular strawberries. Their white fruit shows dramatic specs of red seeds and it tastes a bit like pineapple. They are often planted to provide a contrasting visual effect among their red siblings.

‘White Pineberry’ are everbearing, self-pollinating, and produce fruit from late spring until the first frost.

‘Purple Wonder’

‘Purple Wonder’ is a truly purple strawberry that starts out creamy white and then ripens into red, then burgundy with purple undertones. Both the skin and interior are dark violet-toned and sweeten as it ripens on the planet. This gorgeous fruit took quite some time to perfect, with most work done by the plant breeders at Cornell University, a private Ivy League statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York, USA

Since being established as a strong fruit, it has become very popular with home berry growers. It does not only boast a stunning, deep colour, but also an extra high antioxidant content, making them even healthier than their more traditional family members. An added bonus is that they are even sweater and spicier.

Since ‘Purple Wonder’ does not make many runners, it is ideal for growing in containers in home gardens or on patios.

‘Yellow Wonder’

Also stemming from the Alpine variant, ‘Yellow Wonder’ produces small, vibrantly yellow fruit. Since it tastes creamer and is not as acidic as their red relatives, those who have the privilege of laying a hand on them, prefer their taste.

No wonder they are very popular in fine dining restaurants, which usually manage to grow them themselves. The great news is that they are easy growers, that can start bearing fruit within four months from planting the seeds and the plants bear even more fruit from the second-year cycle.

‘Tristan’

Different to red strawberries which start out as white flowers, Tritan strawberries are mostly known for their bright pink flowers in springtime. Yes, the berries might be the standard red, even though more elongated, but the uniqueness can be found in the extraordinary fuchsia pink blossoms that turn heads.

Adding to its attraction is that it is easy growers, ideal for decorative patios and pot gardens.

Final Thoughts

Whether they are red, white, yellow, or even purple, you cannot go wrong with a juicy fresh-picked berry from the garden. Why not splash out the colour pallet of your garden and try to grow an unusually coloured strawberry? All you need to succeed is to stick to your normal strawberry growing regime, and you can impress your friends when showing off these unique strawberries in no time!