Re: Strawberries; HORRIFIC WEED.
- To: MEDIT-PLANTS@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Strawberries; HORRIFIC WEED.
- From: M* B*
- Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 23:40:43 -0700 (PDT)
>Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 23:06:53 -0400 (EDT)
>X-Sender: salvia@nr.infi.net (Unverified)
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>To: MEDIT-PLANTS@ucdavis.edu
>From: "Richard F. Dufresne" <salvia@nr.infi.net>
>Subject: Re: Strawberries
>Reply-To: salvia@nr.infi.net
>Sender: owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
>Status: U
>
>At 02:26 PM 9/19/1999 EDT, you wrote:
>>In a message dated 9/19/99 11:11:43 AM EST, nsterman@mindsovermatter.com
>>writes:
>>
>><< Anyway, my point is, I was was out in the garden this
>> morning and the California poppies have already sprouted! I've never seen
>> them sprout before November before. >>
>>
>>Nan:
>>
>>Sorry I can't answer your strawberry question, although I have one of my
>>own,
>>of which more later. As to the question of California poppies sprouting, I
>>find them coming up in my garden all year long! However, I irrigate most of
>>the garden right through the summer, so that may be why. They usually make
>>small plants, but I actually have a few flowering amongst the marigolds and
>>chives in my vegetable garden as we speak. It is true that the main "flush"
>>of new growth begins in the fall with the first rains, though.
>>
>>My strawberry question is this. I noticed a "wild" strawberry that had
>>self-sown (or been sown by birds) in my garden a few years back, and thought
>>that it was a pretty thing, with yellow flowers and small, attractive, but
>>inedible fruit. Now it is threatening to take over the entire garden. So
>>far it has only covered a formerly bare, shady place between two sweet
>>cherries, but it is beginning to really "come into its own" now, and is
>>branching out in every direction. I have had to intervene a couple of times
>>to keep it from smothering a particularly attractive variegated Ajuga, and I
>>can see that it is going to be a continuous battle unless I do something
>>drastic. Like all strawberries, it throws out runners in every direction,
>>and roots at every node. The rooted nodes are particularly tenacious, and
>>I'm beginning to think of it as only a slightly more attractive form of
>>Bermuda grass! Any suggestions? Thanks.
>>
>>Kurt Mize
>>Stockton, California
>>USDA Zone 9
>
>Kurt:
>
>Because you mentioned the yellow color of the flowers, I suspect you have
>Duchesnea indica, or indian strawberry. This has an insipid fruit and is a
>weed in North Carolina. It has 3-toothed bracts exceeding the petals and
>sepals. You don't have Waldesteinia fragaroides or barren strawberry,
>since this doesn't have runners.
>
>Richard F. Dufresne
>313 Spur Road
>Greensboro, NC 27406
>336-674-3105
>Dear Kurt,
> They are sold as a ground cover all over Northern California and
are horrendously prone to a pernicious rust. Dig'm up, poison
them, be dilligent. I rid my own garden of them where they'd be
planted on purpose in 3 years. English ivy took much longer
and I'm still battling Vinca major after 28 years!
Good luck.
Michael Barclay
PS-Fragaria californica is a easy going runner with delicious
fruit and it's native. Fraise du bois is the French version
and doesn't run but is quite a seeder.
>
Michael Barclay, D.Lett. opga@wenet.net
Opera Education International/OEI
400 Yale Ave, Berkeley, CA 94708-1109
http://www.operalover.net Please visit our website soon.
