Strawberries cascading from the balcony – from May until frost. Pendula is an everbearing strawberry grown from seed, with trailing stems up to 30 cm long, created for hanging baskets, boxes and tall pots. The fruits are medium-sized to large, red and aromatic, and the plant flowers and fruits continuously throughout the season. Perennial: once sown, it produces crops for several years.

At a glance

• Type: everbearing, trailing strawberry
• Fruits: red, medium-sized and large, aromatic
• Sowing under cover: January – March
• Planting out: May
• Harvest: June – October (from July in the first year)
• Position: sunny or lightly shaded
• Difficulty: moderate – tiny seeds, slow and uneven germination
• Number of seeds per packet: approx. 25 (0.01 g)

What makes this variety stand out

A typical garden strawberry fruits once, in June, and requires a garden bed. Pendula is different: it is an everbearing variety that flowers and sets fruit continuously from late spring until the autumn frosts, with some fruit developing on young runners. The stems do not trail along the ground but hang approximately 30 cm from the container, creating a cascade of leaves, white flowers and red fruits at various stages of ripeness.

Growing from seed means you do not buy seedlings but choose the starting time yourself, and can grow a dozen or more plants from a single packet. The fruits are considerably larger than those of alpine strawberries grown from seed, with a classic strawberry aroma.

Growing step by step

Sowing (January – March, under cover): Sow the very small seeds on the surface of moist, fine growing medium (preferably seed-starting medium mixed with sand) and do not cover them – they need light. Cover the tray with plastic wrap or a lid and keep it at 18–20°C. Germination is uneven and takes 2–4 weeks. Before sowing, it is worth keeping the seeds in the refrigerator for 2–3 weeks – this noticeably improves germination.

Pricking out: When the seedlings have 2–3 true leaves (usually 4–6 weeks after germination), prick them out into 6–8 cm pots. They grow slowly – do not panic; they start growing after pricking out.

Planting out (May): After hardening off and once the frosts have passed, plant into hanging baskets, balcony boxes and pots – 2–3 plants per 5–10 l container, spaced 25 × 30 cm apart. The crown of the plant (where the leaves emerge) must remain above the soil. Use fertile, humus-rich, slightly acidic soil.

Care: Water regularly, and daily during hot weather when growing in containers; strawberries do not tolerate either drought or waterlogging. Feed every 2 weeks with fertilizer for strawberries or fruiting plants. In the first year, you can remove the first flowers to help the plant become stronger. For winter, move the containers to a cool, bright room or cover them with horticultural fleece.

Uses

A variety for balconies and terraces: suitable for hanging baskets, strawberry towers, railing boxes and tall pots, from which the fruit-bearing stems can hang freely. It also works well as a ground cover plant along the edge of a flower bed or in a garden planter. The fruits are eaten fresh, straight from the plant, throughout the summer, a few at a time each day – this is a strawberry for snacking, not for preserving for winter. The flowers attract bees and bumblebees throughout the season.

Gardener’s tip

Specifications