Is it an alpine-type? If it's a regular garden strawberry, that would be momentous. Alpine types are diploids, while regular garden strawberries are octoploids. It would be incredibly hard to make an octoploid come true from seed, unless you got a stable diploid and quadrupled its chromosomes, or something.

Do you know the name of your strawberry? Is it an alpine type? There are heirloom alpine strawberries. Is it a wild one?

The only stabilized garden strawberries I know (and I don't know how they stabilized them) are Fresca, Tresca, and maybe a few others. I think they're too new to be considered heirlooms in every sense, though. I'm guessing that somehow they're not octoploids.

Heirlooms are supposed to come true from seed (not just from runners). Have you grown your strawberry from seed?

Anyway, whether or not it's stabilized that's still a pretty historic strawberry. And, even if it's not stable, I think it's still a good idea to grow it from seed, to see what happens. One way I've grown them is by mushing some strawberries up into the top of some potting soil, and keeping them watered, and then waiting a few weeks. Cold stratification is said to be important, but …

The variety I was talking about is not Alpine. When fully ripe the fruit is big, sweet, flavorful and juicy. I grow new plants from runners, never tried to grow them from seeds, but it could be quite interesting to try and see what happens. Am not sure if there is any fruit on them anymore though, they fruit in June- first half of July. I don't know the name.

I have two more varieties of regular Strawberries which are ever-bearing. I have also ever-bearing Alpines, they reseed themselves quite freely. They may be heirlooms too, I have them for at least 20 years but can't recall where I got them from, very likely from another gardener as well.

Would be nice to know the name of the one you have. I have Fairfax, Holiday, and Marshall. They don't produce berries as large as newer varieties though. Growing strawberries from seeds is fun. I do that for certain varieties that are not available in stores.

Hmm. Strawberryplants.org refers to Sparkle as an heirloom. I wonder if they mean that it's been around for decades, or if they mean it's true-to-type from seed, too.

One of my ever-bearing Strawberries is Hecker. It looks like there is some confusion about the variety - Strawberryplants.org lists it as early season, https://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/3303/hecker-strawberry/ and other sources as ever-bearing. I bought it as ever-bearing, too. I have it for about twenty years already. The fruit is very sweet and the plants produce it since June until first frosts. I don't know when Hecker was introduced, would like to know if it qualifies as heirloom?

Finding what is the name of my June bearing heirloom could be very difficult if at all possible.

Wow! I looked for Hecker once but couldn't find it for sale in the US.

According to the ref. below, Hecker was introduced in 1979.

http://calag.ucanr.edu/archive/?type=pdf&article=ca.v034n02p12

Thank you Winsor Wong for the info. I was always curious how old variety Hecker is. It looks like it doesn't qualify as heirloom regardless of the definition used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_plant#Requirements But it is a good, very productive variety and I am happy with it.

Well, once you hand it down to your family members then it will become one:-)

BTW I was surprised Hecker was introduced in California. It is a cold hardy variety, it survives long, cold winters in my zone 5a without problems and produces until hard frost.

Could that be an inherited trait of most strawberry varieties unless it is intentionally bred out to prefer heat? That's definitely a variety to keep. I'm in Washington State and will look for it again next year. Found a few nurseries online but not sure if they will still offer them. I am not really impressed with Marshall and Fairfax. So hopefully I'll get to try Hecker.

I bought mine Hecker many years ago at the local farmers supply store here in BC, very close to the border with the US. Washington State is BC's neighbor so chances are you will be able to find it there. I grow mine in a very well drained, sandy soil in climate that is very hot during summer, but winters are cold and long. It looks like it likes it here although at one point I was very close to losing it. I kept it too long in the same bed and laughed at those who move their Strawberries to a new bed every second year. Well, I've got my lesson ;-)

I haven't moved mine for a few years now and I can tell that I've lost some. I now have too many and have started growing them in big pots. So many varieties so little spaces.