Named for Marshall Pinckney Wilder, Dorchester resident, President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 1885-1886, and a Dorchester resident.
The following description of a new strawberry bearing the name of one of our most valued horticulturists from the American Journal of Horticulture which states it as the “substance settled upon by the Fruit Committee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
“The plant is hardy, robust, vigorous, and very productive. The foliage is handsome and well developed; leaf, dark green, roundish, obovate, deeply serrated, of great substance, with stiff, short foot-stalks, and stands the extremes of heat and cold without injury. The flower-stalk is stiff and erect, the flowers perfect. The fruit is large, some specimens attaining to more than five inches in circumference; and many berries this year weighed more than an ounce avoirdupois each. Their color is brilliant crimson scarlet; form, obtusely conical; the flesh rosy white, very juicy, but sufficiently firm for market; flavor, rich and sprightly, inclining to sweet, with a distinct aroma of the Alpine or wood strawberry ; seeds, small; season, late.
This variety was produced in 1861 by Mr. Marshall P. Wilder, from artificial impregnation of Hovey’s Seedling with La Constante.”
Source: The American Journal of Horticulture and Florist’s Companion. (Boston, 1868), vol. 4, 150