All I know is that strawberries spread quickly by proucung copies of themself. I don't know the term for that though...
Strawberry leaves do look kind of nice...

gooli94, thanks for replying! I had given up on this post. Yes, they do spread and I have them growing wild everywhere. What I was wondering is how they do as an intentional ground cover. I hate to just pull them up out of my flower beds and throw them away when they have edible and very tasty fruit. I was just wondering if they would make a nice thick cover or would they choke themselves out. Or will they just wander off and leave empty spots where I would want them to be?

Actually, if you have F. vesca I would expect there to be some holes in the groundcover, since it's a clumper, not a runner. My plants eventually start to die off in the middle and need to be divided. You might do better with (and might even have) straight F. virginiana, the eastern native running strawberry. The other thing, of course, is that most of us here have struggled with the various strawberry look-alikes such as Waldsteinia and Duchesnea, and I'd hate to see you waste a whole groundcover area inadvertently on one of those, when it could be hosting the real thing!

gardenpaws, I know they're real because I've eaten the berries:-) But they do have runners. Or most of them do. Maybe I have both species? Thanks for the info. I'll know what to look for now.

slight update - I have been reading further, and apparently some F. vesca have runners, and some do not. so . . . I really don't know what you have . . .
this strawberry business is starting to get interesting. what I'd really love to see and grow is one of the interspecific hybrids, preferably between vesca and moschata.

Interesting! In "Newcomb's Wildflower Guide", there are two species listed; F. virginiana and F. vesca. His descriptions say:
Wild Strawberry (F. virginiana) Flowers 1/2-1" wide; flower cluster (or fruit) usually no taller than the leaves; fruit red, roundish and juicy, with the seeds deeply imbedded in the surface. Fields.

Wood Strawberry (F. vesca) Flowers about 1/2" wide; flower or fruit cluster often overtopping the leaves and the flower stalks of unequal length; fruit cone-shaped, with the seeds on the surface. Open woods and rocky pastures.

So when they bloom and set fruit, I should be able to identify them. Newcomb's doesn't mention moschata and I'm not familiar with it. Tell me more:-)

Moschata isn't an American species - it's European, and didn't naturalize over here. That's why you didn't find it in an American wild flower book. See the included link:

http://www.efn.org/~bsharvy/edible10.html

The above is rather folksy (may need to scroll down to strawberries); the Zaire site below is more botanical, but both have good info. If you REALLY want to have fun, read the entire book on strawberry botany and history (Darrow, I think) from the USDA site.

I'll grow almost anything that is both pretty and tasty, but I admit to a special fondness for strawberries.

Here is a link that might be useful: strawberries (botanical)

Thanks! I'll check out those links when I have some browsing time. They sound interesting.

I am quite interested in this! (Amazing what a search will turn up!) I am letting wild strawberries colonize part of my garden. They do turn mostly brown in the winter, and do form a solid mass of strawberry plants. Problem is that I didn't see any strawberries last summer--not even any green ones. Can they choke themselves out? What do I fertilize them with? How did vegangirl's patch turn out?

I ended up not planting them on the bank under the trees where I had planned to. A state guy came by and told us they were planning to pave our road and their right-of-way wold extend to the bottom of the bank. they still haven't paved it but rumor has it that it's still in the works.

Anyway, back to strawberries, they are still in my woodland beds. I still haven't decided what to do with them!

I don't know if they choke themselves out or not. When I was a child, I picked wild strawberries every summer with my grandmother and later as a teenager, I sold them by the gallon. There seemed to be a lot more of them then! I would come across large patches and they would have a lot of berries.

VG

I remember picking them as a child too, and my mother making strawberry preserves with them. They did seem to be all over the place then.

I grew some strawberries from seed this year, an everbearing, clumping type, to plant underneath the large silver maple that takes up a goodly part of my lawn. A friend told me that the birds and squirrels might well make off with most of them. The yellow kind are not supposed to be attractive to birds, but of course I started the red kind.

I bought some seeds of a yellow alpine strawberry two or three years ago and never got around to planting them. I wonder if they would germinate now? I bought three alpine plants and put them in my flower bed as an edging. They are red and the berries are tasty. I plan to propagate them to continue the edging.

crankyoldman, I hope your seeds do well :)

Oh, sure, at least some of them will germinate. I'd sure give it a try. I'd use the paper towel method, though, so I can tell which seeds are viable and only plant those that are immediately upon seeing roots develop.

Blessings,
Angela

Hi Angela,
I planted the seeds this spring but, alas, nothing germinated :(

I like the red ones I bought from Bluestone. They make a nice edging and have a few berries all summer and fall. Still haven't tried propagating them.

Anyone try Alpine Strawberries? Sometimes called Berry of the Woods. They are shade tolerant. I have a few growing in a shady area under some trees but they are only 2 yrs old and havent spread yet. They have small berries that are the sweetest I have ever tasted. No runners, they spread by seed.