PlantSowGrow
How to plant and care for Alpine Strawberry (Mignonette)
Fragaria vesca
🍓 Fruit
🔁 Perennial
Tiny, intensely fragrant wild-type strawberries from June to the frosts. No runners, happy in part shade — lovely as edging or in pots.
At a glance: harvest in June.
When to plant and care for it
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Plant
Harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Alpine Strawberry (Mignonette): what it needs
- Light
- Part shade · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water well while fruit swells
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 25 cm
- Height
- 20 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- Sulphate of potash in late winter; mulch with compost
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–9
Step by step
- Mid March – late May · 4 weeks before the last spring frost
Plant
Plant 25 cm apart in weed-free, well-prepared soil enriched with compost, and water in well.
- 0–3 days after “Plant” · Mid March
Water Well
Keep new plants moist while they establish.
- 7–21 days after “Water Well” · Late March – early April
Mulch
Spread 5 cm of compost or bark around the plants to keep moisture in and weeds down.
Every year
- MarchSpring Feed
Give a light high-potash feed and top-dress pots with fresh compost.
- JuneStart Picking
Pick the little berries every few days until autumn — they are best eaten warm from the plant.
- OctoberAutumn Tidy
Remove old, tatty leaves. Divide clumps every 3 years in spring.
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