I wintersowed Alpine strawberries a few years ago and had very good luck with them. mao

I have tried both ways with Mignonette (which are very similar to an Alpine). I found that the plants I started indoors were better. The seedlings are very tiny to start with, but the ones I winter-sowed were about 1/2 the size of the indoor plants.

Having said that, I'm sure they would have caught up once planted in their permanent spots, I just had so many plants that I didn't bother.

I had just the opposite experience from organic ns with alpine strawberries Alexandria. My winter sown seed shad a much higher germination rate and much stronger plants and bore strawberries the first summer.

I just looked on line and boy there are a lot of new strawberries varieties from seed available new for 2012. I may have to add a few more seeds.