Alpine strawberry

The alpine strawberry is evergreen and hardy. In the bed it gets through a winter in the lowlands of Germany, Austria and Switzerland without protection; leave the foliage standing as natural protection and cut back old brown leaves only after winter. Pots you place against a sheltered house wall, or wrap the container in horticultural fleece, because the roots in a container are more vulnerable to prolonged frost than in the ground.

Alpine strawberries usually form no runners or only very few, so sowing and crown division are the reliable ways to propagate them.

Sowing (easiest method): Sow the tiny seeds indoors from February to April. The seeds are light-germinating; just lay them on the soil and press them down, and do not cover them. Keep the surface evenly moist at 18 to 20 °C; this is easiest with a propagator lid or cling film, which you air briefly every day. After 3 to 4 weeks the first seedlings appear. As soon as the young plants have 2 to 3 true leaves, prick them out singly. From mid-May, after the Ice Saints, they go outdoors.

Crown division (for established plants): Since alpine strawberries lose vigour after a few years, dividing is a good method of rejuvenation. The plants grow in ever wider clumps with several crowns. In spring or autumn, lift the plant carefully, separate the daughter crowns with your hands or a clean knife and plant each crown with its own roots straight away in a new spot. Make sure the crown (where the shoots emerge from the roots) stays above the soil. Water the divisions in well.