Wild strawberries question
Hello all, first post here.
A few years back, I was hanging out in a friend's garden and they had a patch of these tiny strawberries. They were fantastic in a jug of Pimms 
I learnt that these were wild strawberries and I wanted to collect some of the seeds to grow my own, however I was visiting from Australia at that time so bringing back any plant material is a big no-no.
I now live in the UK, and I have been trying to find these same plants since. All the wild strawberry seeds I purchased gave me a more elongated looking fruit - nice, but not the ones I fell in love with!
I was wondering if they are a different variety? I would love to grow the ones in the first picture. I purchased some plants of Waitrose Garden that had that picture in its description, but alas, it arrived today and it's also the elongated form.
Does anyone know where I can find the variety in the first picture?
Posts
I think there is a distinction between Fragaria vesca and Fragaria vesca subsp. alpina, the latter producing small round fruits, but it is a rather controversial matter.
Maybe Fragaria musca? - Chiltern sell several varieties of wild strawberry seed. I was looking through their catalogue today, thinking ahead to next year's veg
It might be easier to find a friend/neighbour who has them and can offer some runners. The round fruit variety grow like weeds in my garden and I am constantly pulling them out even though I like the fruit.
Should have checked before I posted
!
I meant Fragaria moschata, the musk strawberry.
Wow, thanks everybody for their responses! Certainly gives me somewhere to start googling for plant suppliers.
I am suprised to know that they are pretty common in backyards. I've only seen them twice outside of the first time: a lone berry on a small plant while walking in Wales, and at Hampton Court (where I sneakily picked a half bird-pecked berry, hoping I could propagate them by seed).
I want them as groundcover for some parts of mygarden, it sounds like they can be very vigourous so I probably shouldn't plant too many too closely together?
Is this what you're looking for? (The colour is off to their normal bright flare as these have gone over).
Last edited: 17 August 2017 17:04:56
The plants themselves are quite small, but they send out runners in all directions, like creeping buttercup. They can get in quite a tangle and they don't stay where you put them!. If you want to harvest the fruit too, you could perhaps treat them a bit like periwinkle and cut off the runners to encourage the plants to fruit. An alternative might be to try the cultivated version 'Mara des Bois', said to have the wild flavour but larger berries and plants.
Yup, they are the ones! The ones I have grown have pointy fruit - I now realise they may be a different variety. I did get a lot of fruit but they were slightly dry/spongy unless they were very ripe.
It's a bit two fold, I do love the fruit but also looking for something to cover empty spots in the flower beds.
I'll have a look at the Mara des Bois variety too, thanks!