Strawberry, Fragola Di Bosco

Strawberry, Fragola Di Bosco  European (Woodland) wild strawberry. Produces small, fragile intense tasting berries in early summer (July usually). No runners.  Prefer acid soils with plenty of water. This alpine or wild strawberry is a small clumping plant with small superbly fragrant and delicious fruit. Grow as a ground cover space 12" apart in moist partial shade. The plants require less fertile soil and are more resistant to disease than normal strawberries. Sow under glass in the spring and plant out when the threat of frost has passed.  Delicious fresh or made into preserves or tarts.Easy to grow variety producing numerous small bright red fruits. Very sweet and perfumed preferring half shade. These are a real taste treat. 

 

Fragaria vesca (OP seed grown)  Heirloom cultivar/ wild type cultivar

This is an wild, collected-from-the-wild (Italian alps) alpine.  Most alpines are, but this one is from a seed source that is variable and across a wide range of locales. This means that berries may vary in size from plant to plant, but also that the uniqueness of these is in their diverse genetic range.  They have been growing here at the nursery and look great, healthy and able to take our summers well.  This is one strawberry I don’t grow the seed for, as I prefer to get it directly from Italy to maintain the wide geographic collection range.  This will have more variable fruit size, though the flavor has been very good and to me indistinguishable from other red alpines. They are smaller berries overall when compared to the other red alpines, but they show the same vigor and growth of all alpines.      USDA hardiness zones 4-9