Thursday, August 15, 2019

Plants in Early American Gardens - Alpine Strawberry

Alpine Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Alpine Strawberry, also known as Fraises des Bois or Woodland Strawberry, has white flowers and small, very flavorful crimson berries throughout the season. Jefferson sowed three rows of Alpine Strawberry seeds on March 31, 1774. In a letter to James Monroe some twenty years later, Jefferson included Alpine Strawberry as one of the "three objects which you should endeavor to enrich our country with." This European wildflower makes a compact, mounded plant that spreads by runners.