flesh, and ‘Clagny Quoimio’, a scarlet-coloured type, which Duchesne thought was a backcross of F. virginiana × ‘Quoimio de Haarlem’.
BREEDING IN EUROPE FROM 1800 TO 2000
At first, only chance hybrids of F. chiloensis and F. virginiana were evaluated by horticulturalists. Steady genetic progress was made over the years but yields and fruit quality still left something to be desired. Formal strawberry breeding was initiated in England in 1817 by Thomas A. Knight (Pearl, 1928; Darrow, 1966; Wilhelm and Sagen, 1974). He was one of the first systematic breeders of any crop, and he used clones of both F. virginiana and F. chiloensis in his crosses. He produced the famous ‘Downton’ and ‘Elton’ cultivars, noted for their large fruit, vigour and hardiness. Michael Keen, a market gardener near London, also became interested in strawberry improvement at about this time and developed ‘Keen’s Imperial’, whose offspring ‘Keen’s Seedling’ (Fig. 2.6) is in the background of many modern cultivars. The berries of ‘Keen’s Seedling’ were a sensation as they were sometimes 2 in. in diameter, deep red in colour and particularly good flavoured. The plants were prolific and bore their fruit well above the ground. This variety dominated strawberry acreage for close to a century (Table 2.1) and the Royal Horticultural Society awarded this remarkable berry its silver cup in 1821.
Fig. 2.6. The strawberry ‘Keen’s Seedling’, which was a sensation in England in the late 1800s. It is in the pedigree of many modern cultivars. (From Darrow, 1966.)
Table 2.1. Dominant Fragaria × ananassa cultivars in Europe before 2000. (From Darrow, 1966; Brooks and Olmo, 1997; Hancock, 1996; David Simpson and Bruno Mezzetti, personal communications.)
Numerous excellent varieties followed the success of ‘Keen’s Seedling’ in Europe in the first half of the 18th century and were grown for decades (Darrow, 1966). Among the most elite were J. William’s ‘Pitmaston Black’, a Mr Myatt’s ‘British Queen’ (1840), J. Salter’s ‘Jucunda’ (1854) and J. Bradley’s ‘Sir Joseph Paxton’ (1862). ‘Pitmaston Black’ and ‘British Queen’ were dominant in the mid-1800s and were grown in England as late as 1914. ‘Jucunta’ was a major variety in both Europe and the USA until the 1920s and was still planted to some extent in the 1960s. ‘Sir Joseph Paxton’ was the leading variety in England until the 1930s and in France for another decade. Particularly noteworthy characteristics of these cultivars were the high flavour of the ‘Pitmaston Black’ and ‘British Queen’, the productivity, lateness, high flavour and capping ease of ‘Jucunda’, and the brilliant, glossy red colour and firmness of ‘Sir Joseph Paxton’.
Several excellent French varieties were released during the mid-1800s including J. Jamin’s ‘Vicomptesse Héricart de Thury’ (1845) and M. Lebreton’s ‘Marguerite’ (1858) (Darrow, 1966). ‘Héricart de Thury’ had excellent flavour and glossy red, firm berries that made it the most important preserve berry for 100 years. ‘Marguerite’ did not achieve the long-term status of ‘Héricart de Thury’ but was widely admired for its exceptionally large berries, said to average 15–20 g with 40–45 g primaries.
Thomas Laxton of England was the most active breeder during the late part of the 18th century and released a number of important varieties including ‘Noble’ (1884) and ‘Royal Sovereign’ (1892). These two varieties were grown on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and were popular until the middle of the 20th century. ‘Noble’ was known for its earliness, cold hardiness and disease resistance. ‘Royal Sovereign’ was popular because of its earliness, productivity, flavour, attractiveness and hardiness. The American variety ‘Sharpless’ was in the ancestry of both these cultivars.
Some of the most popular releases in the early 20th century were C. Moutot’s ‘Madame Moutot’ (France, 1910), Bottner’s ‘Deutsch Evern’ (Germany, 1902), O. Schindler’s ‘Oberschlesien’ (Germany, 1919) and Guyot of Dijon’s ‘Surprise des Halles’ (France, 1929). ‘Madame Moutot’ was popular in France and other European countries until the late 1960s due to its size and productiveness. ‘Deutsch Evern’ was the standard early variety in northern Europe for decades and was still grown to some extent in 1960 (Darrow, 1966). It was noted for its productivity and long, conical, light-red fruit. ‘Oberschlesien’ was widely planted in Germany until 1945 for its high yield and adaptability. ‘Surprise des Halles’ was the most popular cultivar in France in the mid-1960s because of its earliness, fruit quality and productivity.
In the middle of the 20th century, a number of particularly active breeding programmes emerged in Scotland, England, Germany and the Netherlands. In Scotland, R. Reid developed a series of varieties resistant to red stele, utilizing American ‘Aberdeen’ as a source of resistance. His variety ‘Auchincruive Climax’ (1947) dominated acreage in Great Britain and northern Europe until its demise due to June yellows in the mid-1950s. He then released ‘Redgauntlet’ (1956) and ‘Talisman’ (1955), which served as suitable replacements. In England, D. Boyle produced a large series of varieties with the prefix ‘Cambridge’. ‘Cambridge Favourite’ (1953) became the most important of the group and dominated the acreage in Great Britain by the 1960s. It is still planted somewhat today, due to its productivity, firmness, shippability and capping ease. In Germany, R. von Sengbusch produced a ‘Senga’ series, of which ‘Senga Sengana’ (1954) became paramount. ‘Senga Sengana’ was widely planted for its processing quality and is still important in Poland and other eastern European countries. In the Netherlands, H. Kronenberg and L. Wassenaar released several cultivars, of which ‘Gorella’ (1960) made the greatest impact. It was noted for its size, bright-red glossy skin and red flesh.
BREEDING OUTSIDE EUROPE FROM 1800 TO 2000
The greatest concentration of breeding activity outside of Europe until the modern period was in the USA, although the Japanese produced two important varieties: Dr H. Fukuba’s ‘Fukuba’ (1899), noted for its large size and high flavour (Darrow, 1966), and K. Tamari’s ‘Kogyoku’ (1940), respected for its vigour, earliness and fruit size (Mochizuki, 1995). ‘Fukuba’ was the most important variety in forcing culture until the early 1970s. ‘Kogyoku’ was one of the leading field-grown cultivars after World War II, until it lost importance to the American import ‘Donner’ in the 1950s (Darrow, 1966).
Charles Hovey, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, produced the first important North American cultivar ‘Hovey’, by crossing the European pine strawberry ‘Mulberry’ with a native clone of F. virginiana in 1836 (Fig. 2.7). It was the first variety of any fruit to come from an artificial cross in America and for some time made the strawberry
