Fragaria virginiana (9cm)

Fragaria virginiana: Tiny Berries, Big Local Reputation

This is the original strawberry, the one your uncle swears tasted better when he was a kid. He's RIGHT, and he will NEVER LET YOU FORGET IT. Small berries, enormous flavour, and runners that treat every bare patch like an open house.

Plant Characteristics:

• Botanical Name: Fragaria virginiana
• Common Name: Wild Strawberry, Virginia Strawberry
• Height: 10–23 cm (4–9 in)
• Spread: 30–60 cm (1–2 ft), spreading by runners into broad colonies
• Flowers: White, five-petalled flowers about 2 cm (3/4 in) across with yellow centres, in small clusters
• Bloom Time: Spring (May to June)
• Foliage: Semi-evergreen, coarsely toothed green leaves in sets of three
• Fruit: Small red berries about 1 cm (1/2 in) across, sweet-tart and intensely flavoured, ripening in early summer; some wild plants carry only female flowers, so a patch of several plants fruits better than a single one
• Features: Edible fruit, quick-spreading ground cover, holds soil on slopes, fruit feeds songbirds and small wildlife, non-toxic to cats, dogs and horses

Where to Plant: Let it run as a ground cover on a sunny bank, along a path, at the front of a border or through a meadow or naturalized area. It grows best in organically rich, well-drained sandy loam but also handles clay and silt, and it copes with occasional dry spells once established. Give it room, since runners root as they go and a few plants become a carpet within a couple of seasons.

Companion Plants: Use wild strawberry as a native ground layer in a sunny or part-shade bed with taller natives rising through it. Aquilegia canadensis adds nodding red and yellow columbines at 30 to 75 cm in May and June. Gillenia trifoliata brings starry white flowers on red stems at 60 to 120 cm in June and July. Solidago rigida adds flat-topped yellow goldenrod at 90 to 150 cm from August to October. Deschampsia cespitosa adds fine blades and airy flower clouds at 60 to 90 cm.

Plant Care: Plant in spring or early fall with the crown at soil level, and water regularly through the first season until the runners begin to root. Established patches need little care beyond a drink in long dry spells; the plant prefers cool spring and fall weather and slows down in summer heat. No pruning is needed, though you can shear tired old leaves in early spring and pull runners that wander where you don't want them. Skip heavy fertilizer, which pushes leaves at the expense of fruit. Pick the berries in early summer as soon as they turn fully red, because the birds are watching too.

History: Wild strawberry grows across eastern and central North America, from Newfoundland west to Alberta and south to Georgia, including Ontario and Quebec. Carried to Europe in the 1600s, it later crossed with the Chilean beach strawberry in France to create the garden strawberry grown today.

Final Thoughts: Plant a patch, let it roam, and race the chipmunks to breakfast. FAIR WARNING: THE CHIPMUNKS HAVE BEEN TRAINING.