anyone growing thimble berries or alpine strawberries?

i have just ordered a thimbleberry plant and some alpine strawberry plants from one green world nursery.
anyone have any experience growing these?

Ohhh - I want a thimbleberry! I will go and order one now that you found me a source! I have grown Alpine Strawberries in Fairfield, CT. I started them from seed at my old house and they grew and grew and grew! I had fresh berries from July 4th until they froze on the plants. They are yummy. More plants popped up all over the yard thanks to critters eating the berries. It would be good to cut them down for winter as they die back. They are a cute as a button and I think I will start some more for this house. I grew the red berries - but they also come in yellow.

My neighbor just gave me an empty jelly jar that contained Thimbleberry jelly. (I do not know why she gave me an empty one). She said she happened to find it at a sale up north and just loved it, raved about it, was very sorry she didn't buy all they had. (Maybe that's why it was empty). She said it was a very tart berry. The label says that it was made by Traprock wilderness products in Calumet Michigan.
That's probably not the info you were looking for but I like to add my 2 cents.

What kind of plant is it...does it look like a strawberry plant or more like a raspberry?

I will have to google it. I remember them from a vacation to British Columbia in 1970. I thought they were so cute because of the name and because they fell right off the stem into your hand.

This message was edited May 13, 2006 11:05 AM

In the last place I lived we had thimbleberries all over the property. We weren't to impressed with them (fuzzy, seedy, small=poor texture) but it may also have been that they didn't compare well with the two kinds of blackberries and the salmonberries that also were all over the place.

Alpine strawberries, though, are some of my favorites.

Alpine strawberries are great! We've got maybe 18 each of Ruegen and Profumata in our rock garden; both have been bearing tiny, very intensely flavored berries from May to October here in Seattle--quantities you can actually do something with in June-July, but enough for a nice snack while gardening, the rest of the time. I like them so much, I've decided not to bother growing any "regular" varieties.

I wander if thats what we were eating when i was a kid (long time ago) they grew wild along the RR track back in northern indiana. Sweet , very small, and absolutly delicious. never tasted a strawberry quite as good as they were. I don't wish to interupt the thread but i have aked elsewhere and no answer. I planted some ozark beauty berries this spring, running allover the place making baby plants, but only 1 plant is blooming. Should i whack off the runners in order to produce berries?

My mother in law had white alpine strawberries when I got married. My wife and all the neices and nephews raved about them, and didn't leave any for me to sample. I managed to get one of them (magic berries as they called them) and was wowed. Partially because they tasted great and partially because the birds didn't get every one as they did with my traditional red strawberries.

I looked and found plants for 4.95 (plus shipping and a minimum order of $30.00) from a couple of online nurseries. I knew I wanted a few, so I kept searching and found seeds at Pinetree for $1.25 for 40 (plus 2.95 shipping). I bought two packs with my next seed order and grew them. I got about 50% small red berried plants and 50% whote (yellow) fruited plants. They do not form runners, but the crowns can be divided in the spring, just mark out the red fruited ones if you are looking to get rid of them.

I've now got about 40 plants (and I gave my mother in law another dozen). I wouldn't be without them..

~Chills