Alpine Strawberry Nuisance

A couple of years ago I bought my mother an alpine strawberry for her gravel garden. It did very well, in fact, too well. It has spread everywhere and become very invasive!
I have already physically pulled out all the runners I could find but even the smallest hidden root soon spreads rapidly and we are back to square one.
Has anyone else had this problem and how did you get rid of this plant once and for all?
(BTW I've never seen any fruit, which is doubly annoying).

 

I have never grown alpine strawberries but I seen this site it might help
Strawberry Plants
https://strawberryplants.org › straw...
Strawberry Plants Producing Runners but no Strawberries?
11 Feb 2022 — The top 10 reasons why strawberry plants are producing runners but no strawberries. Learn how you can fix this! Also it mentioned
Unlike “regular” strawberries, alpine strawberries do not produce runners. They grow in clumps that increase in size as the plant ages. To get more plants, instead of propagating the runners as you do with regular strawberries, you dig up the clumps and divide them, moving the divisions to a new spot in the garden.

Savvy Gardening › alpi...
Alpine Strawberries: How to Grow From Seed or ...

 

I had a small Strawberry that spread by runners and it often produced tiny little fruit like the wild ones in the hedgerows. I just kept pulling it out physically over the years, until there is now hardly any left, but I don't think I'll get rid of it completely. I suppose you could spray it with a weedkiller but you'd have to be careful not to get it on any surrounding plants or they'd be killed as well. Sorry but I don't think there's an easy answer.

 

Hi @Nickos , welcome to the forum!

You probably have three options: weedkiller, pulling every bit up by hand daily until you win, or to declare it as a wonderful groundcover.

My stock is from seed, it grows everywhere and is in fact a very useful and pretty plant. It is nearly evergreen and sometimes gets nice autumn colour.

To see some flowers and fruit you could try potting some up for next summer, mini strawberries look very decorative in a nice pot on the table.

Good luck, let us know what you plan to do

 

Having pulled it all out once, I don't think I could go through all that again. When we get a bit of dry weather I shall probably spray a test patch and see how it responds. Thanks for the responses though.

 

The thing is not to let it get that bad. Pull the individual plants out as you go along, before it takes over. Gardening is an ongoing process, you don't just do something once and finish.

 

How about getting one of those wands that roast the weeds with a flame? Never tried one myself but it should work on gravel.