Comments on: Wild (about wild) Strawberries

By: Herman

Herman — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:16:48 +0000

Does wild strawberries, since they are a perennial, take 2 years to flower and fruit?
Fraises des bois sometimes fruit the first season if you start the seeds in mid-winter. F. virginiana I don’t know; some plants in wild patches do appear fruitless, which may indicate a first year (and may not).

By: mangibin

mangibin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:16:29 +0000

I am hoping you can solve a mystery for me. I have several thriving plants that in every way look like strawberries, spread like strawberries. But here it is almost August and not one of the plants has bloomed. My normal strawberry bed is pretty much done for the season. These just grow and spread. Is there a real strawberry that waits until the end of summer to bloom and produce, or possibly one that never produces flowers?

I have finally pulled them because they were taking over. But should I put them in the strawberry bed or the compost?
Thanks so much!

There are a few strawberrylike weeds and it sounds as though that’s what you’ve got. Even the ones that do flower don’t produce good fruit. The wild strawberries you’d want to keep (F. virginiana) don’t spread as fast as the plants you’re describing and they are much smaller in all regards than garden strawberries.

By: Patty

Patty — Mon, 03 May 2010 03:07:22 +0000

To discourage nibblers from eating all my strawberries, I frequently dust the patch with cayenne pepper. I’m in the process of adding chives and other garlicky-oniony plants as companions to the strawberries.

Today I dug some wild strawberry and blueberry plants from my parents’ camp in PA. I have cultivars of these berries, but I am hoping the wild ones will flourish as well.

By: kathleen a grant

kathleen a grant — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:59:14 +0000

Wild strawberries have taken over my garden! How do I get rid of them.The problem has gotten worse over the past three years. Each year I try different weed killers but they are back again and worse then ever. Also, how did they ever get there? I have a flower garden and never planted them.

By: Jan Foley

Jan Foley — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 06:25:01 +0000

I live in Scotland, and I have that “pineapple” white strawberry growing wild all over my garden. In fact, it’s become quite a weed, the little monster! I’m allowing it to grow in one semi-wild patch, and pulling it out of all the others. It has a really nice flavour and smells delicious too, but strangely enough, it’s not appealing as a fruit. Who wants to eat a dish full of white strawberries, or make white strawberry jam? It’s correct that birds aren’t interested and even the Eat-Everything-In-Sight gray squirrels seem unenthusiastic, and only nibble occasionally. I can’t grow any kind of red strawberries in my garden because they all get eaten before they’re fully ripe, by mice, birds AND squirrels …but the white berries don’t get touched. So it’s got to be the colour that puts everybody off!

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:33:38 +0000

Hello I have an Alpine strawberry plant in a hanging basket that I started from seed. On some of the leaves the edges are turning dark brown but other than that its growing perfectly. What am I doing wrong??

Thanks Nicole

By: leslie

leslie — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:56:59 +0000

Hi Justin

Good question. Spontaneous cross species hybrids are possible. Supposedly, that’s how garden strawberries ( Fragaria x ananassa) arose.

But it’s not hugely likely. You wouldn’t know until you grew plants from the seeds, and garden strawberries are typically propagated by runners. So the only cross you might get would be in next-generation vescas. I have a lot of self-sown ones and they do exhibit some variety, but nothing that suggests influence from the garden strawberries grown not right next door but plenty close enough for cross-pollination.

Still, you never know. It sounds as though you’re not keen to have this happen, but if something interesting does develop please write back and tell us!

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:53:06 +0000

Can fragaria ananassa (garden strawbrries) be grown in the same patch as fragaria vesca (Alpine strawberries) without them being cross pollinated and becoming hybridized ?

By: leslie

leslie — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:48:45 +0000

Strawberry Planter

This post must be jinxed – I never got the “you have a comment” message, sorry!

Anyway, best strawberries for a planter are the Alpine kind – the plants are pretty, they stay neat and tidy and they bear all season. You can plant them pretty much any time; just be sure they get plenty of water… and some shade until they’re established. Lots of choices at the “alpine strawberries” link at the bottom of the post.

Linda,

strawberry sexuality is complicated, but the true wild ones, F. virginiana can be either female or bisexual, pretty much at random (go figure). The bisexual ones can pollinate themselves but usually don’t; so a pollinator is needed no matter which kind they are. That means the “right” plants are just several different ones, “different” meaning not only separate but also genetically distinct; the plants formed by runners will all be clones of the original plant.

all this is pretty much true of “wild” strawberries that are actually tame; the F. vesca that’s in the post and suggested in response to Strawberry Planter’s comment.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:48:31 +0000

My wild strawberries do not get berries. is there male and female strawberry plants? My plants get beautiful white flowers , but no berries. Someone told me the male and female parts can be identified in the flower. What do you think? Do you know where i can get the right plants to make this plant bear fruit?