Unpretentious Potentilla for a summer-autumn garden
If you want your flower beds and garden to remain attractive not only in the spring and summer, plant Potentilla. This unique plant is able to grow almost everywhere without losing its vitality even after a cold winter. And thanks to the long flowering period, the unpretentious Potentilla will decorate the garden until the October frosts. What does she look like and what does she love?
Description and types of culture
There are many varieties of Potentilla that differ in appearance. It can be compact annual bushes up to 40 cm high with creeping shoots. There are many perennial, rather tall shrubs with a growth and crown diameter of more than 1 m, as well as herbaceous forms. They all have dark green leaves and a wide range of colors. Inflorescences, depending on the specific variety, are colored in white, pink, yellow or red, or in their shades. In most plants, flowers are collected in small panicle inflorescences; species with single buds are also found. Beginning in May, Potentilla blooms until mid-autumn. Dense foliage and inflorescences that open one after another make it an excellent ornamental crop.
Interesting! "Kuril tea" - this is how shrub cinquefoil has long been called. Our ancestors were still treated with her broths, but today the culture is actively used in folk medicine.
In gardening, most often you can find the following varieties of Potentilla:
- Nepalese (herbaceous perennial up to 50 cm high with red-pink flowers);
- white (undersized herbaceous perennial no more than 25 cm high with white inflorescences);
- goose (herbaceous perennial with long leaves and large white buds up to 2 cm in diameter);
- Kuril (perennial tall shrub up to 1.5 in height with a voluminous crown and yellow flowers).
Cinquefoil in the garden: features of growing a plant
The culture is one of the most unpretentious and can grow anywhere. However, for the bloom to manifest at full strength, plant the cinquefoil in a well-lit place. Herbaceous varieties are usually propagated by seed by planting seeds on seedlings or directly on a flower bed. Shrub species develop faster if you plant a seedling in the garden in the spring.
Important! If you have white cinquefoil, give it a shady place in the garden - this species does not really like the sun.
Potentilla care is minimal. Plants do not need frequent watering, especially if you mulch the soil under the bush. For the entire growing season, it is enough to carry out only 3 fertilizing with the mineral complex: in late spring, in mid-summer and in early autumn. Shrub forms of Potentilla will bring a little trouble - they will have to be cut regularly. In the spring, shorten last year's shoots and cut out old and elongated branches. For this, the bush will delight you with a beautiful shape and abundant flowering.