colonials

i left work and went to an avocation...and there were things to do...the two daughter plants that i pinned down saturday have taken root...and sent out yet another runner each ( top photo... and if you look closely enough you will see one of the stolons is branching )...i see more work ahead...but...i said i wasn't going to trim another runner off the plant in the corner and sure enough it has a stolon headed out into space...so i buried a pot of soil and compost so the top was at the soil level of the bed, made a pin out of a twig i found on the ground, and pinned it down to root in the pot...soon a new plant will need a home and if i am going to control the bed's population without trimming a lot more stolons i will be starting a nursery...perennials like to reproduce in a relentless fashion that makes them seem invasive...but once they reach a natural limit of population in an area they tend to taper off...there is space in the strawberry bed and they intend to use it...keeping it under control is where the human intervention part comes in...it's okay...it's an avocation not work.__________" in 1712 a french naval captain named andre frezier was sent to south america to report chilean coastal defenses, and when he came home, he bore armloads of the big-berried, pineapple flavored chilean strawberry plants. in his enthusiasm, he had selected, only the most beautiful, the most vigorous, the most flower-filled plants to transport back to france. he had unwittingly selected only females. the plants transplanted happily enough...they bloomed profusely...but for 30 years they bore no fruit. and then, by chance and by mistake, some foundlings of the virginia variety were set in amongst them. the south american spinsters mixed and mingled with with virginia's dandies and a union was consummated in the beds of france." ruth epstein on the birth of the modern strawberry hybrid.