Breeding of Pink-Flowering Ornamental Strawberries in Siberia

A breeding programme at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ICG SB RAS) aims to create double-usage strawberry cultivars for regional home gardeners and plant specialists. A germplasm bank for pink-flowering strawberry has been established that includes breeding material such as the widely available cultivar 'Pink Panda' and F-1 hybrids such as Exp C141 available from ABZ Seeds (The Netherlands). Specifically, the aim is to select everbearing hybrids with strong ornamental characteristics, winter hardiness, high fruit yield, good taste and genetic stability under vegetative propagation. Preliminary data for inheritance patterns of the pink flower trait indicate a dosage effect for the gene responsible for pink colour. Forty one candidate hybrids have been selected with various combinations of ornamental and fruit traits, including dark and light pink flower colour and a semi-double corolla with a range of colour variation. Petal colour remains stable from year to year and is not significantly affected by normal variations under environmental growing conditions.