Two new pink-flowered strawberry cultivars ‘Sijihong’ and ‘Xiaotaohong’

The pink-flowered strawberry is known as an ornamental strawberry. It is becoming a popular ornamental perennial herb in China for its pretty pink flowers, long florescence and edible fruits. But its flower color mainly focuses on pink series. In order to further improve the ornamental traits of pink-flowered strawberry, the reciprocal crosses of 'Pink Beauty' and 'Pretty Beauty', and 'Pink Princess' and 'Pretty Beauty' were performed in 2012. Two new ornamental cultivars with red flowers, 'ijihong' and 'Xiaotaohong', were selected in 2014 and released in 2016 from the cross of LSQUOPink BeautyRSQUO × 'Pretty Beauty' and 'Pink Princess' × 'Pretty Beauty', respectively. 'Sijihong' had beautiful red flowers (RHS N57 A) with 3.0 cm in diameter. Its inflorescence was erect and slightly above leaves with 10 to 30 flowers per inflorescence. It was day-neutral and bloomed continuously from early May until mid-October in the open field in Shenyang city, northeast China. Its fruit was red, conical and uniform with average 7.5 g primary fruit weight. It tasted sweet with 10.0% soluble solid; 'Xiaotaohong' had very attractive red flowers (RHS 60 A) with 3.5 cm in diameter. Its fruit was red, conical and uniform with average 8.3 g primary fruit weight. It tasted a bit sour with 8.0% soluble solid. It had strong runner production. Both cultivars could be used as ground cover, pot or hanging basket.