Hi Philly gardener, I grow different kinds of alpines and this summer will have plants to trade with you, they are just coming up now but as far as seed co. go, they are very expensive. But the place I buy where the germ. rate seems pretty good is www.fraisesdesbois.com which is now a part of www.strawberrystore.com there are others like www.tradewinds.com and www.superseeds.com This year I am crossing 2 different kinds, mignonette and pineapple crush, which is a red variety with a white. I have growing, Delious, White soul, mignonette,pineapple crush,fragila di bosco,regina,golden alexandria,(reg)alexandria, holiday and four seasons.

I used the same setup last year for alpines as my tomatoes/pepper setup this year: I just put many alpine seeds in a seed tray with flourescent lights right above (way closer than my pic in this thread since this pic has only peppers/tomatoes, so maybe a couple inches off the top of the tray, right above the humidity dome) http://thehotpepper.com/topic/29692-my-first-attempt-growing-many-hot-peppers/. I made sure to keep theem moist and not allow tops to dry out. and removed humidity dome when they got a bit bigger I had couple hundred alpine plants by time I was done. I'd like to give a shout out and thank Mike from thestrawberrystore.com for giving me the fluorescent lights when i went to visit and pickup an order of plants from him.

I recieved some alpine strawberries in a trade, placed the seed in the freezer for 2-4 weeks (I was nervous about the freezer bit, but found more than one source that suggested it), and have had pretty good germination. All the sources I've checked have said they are irregular germinators so be patient with them. From Tom Clothier's page: Fragaria vesca , Sow at Max. 5ºC (41ºF), germination irregular, often several months Mine was not sown at 41 F and I still had germination (mine are at room temp or warmer).

I have extra Ruegen Alpine strawberry plants(F. alpina) grown from seed last year. I started them late but still had some fruit in late summer. No evidence of runners. You'd think the fruiting plants would have at least thrown out one runner if it was going to. I got the seed from Pine Tree Gardens too. But in 2003. A new batch of seed so maybe they are not the same. I'll know this year for sure.