Why so many late flowers?
QI have some lovely marigolds in flower at the moment, but also a few tatty strawberry ones that aren’t looking good Should I remove them? Alison Ireland (via email)
AI think it is quite extraordinary the plants we can see in flower at present – largely in response to the relatively mild and bright weather we’ve been having.
‘Ordinary’ strawberries start producing their flower buds as the days shorten in late summer. These remain in embryonic form until the following year, though they can be encouraged to develop earlier by warming plants under cloches, or bringing them into a frost-free greenhouse in late winter.
I would surmise that your strawberry plant has gone through this process very quickly and produced a very early flower.
On the other hand, perhaps the flower is a remnant of this year’s buds that for some reason did not develop in summer but has been stimulated by the warm October weather.
You don’t need to be concerned about the flower. Once truly cold weather arrives your strawberry plant will enter winter dormancy. This will stop growth and flowering until the weather starts to warm up and get lighter in spring.
Remove the flower, though it is unlikely to develop into a fruit. Even if it does it is unlikely that the fruit will mature because the plant has largely slowed down towards dormancy.