Potentilla Care and Pruning

Caring For Potentilla

This is the great advantage of potentillas - they thrive in most soil conditions, and stand shade and sun alike. If you are looking for the ideal conditions, they prefer well-drained, reasonably rich soil, but will tolerate clay, rocky, or slightly alkaline soils as well.

They are a very durable plant, tolerating drought, flooding, extreme cold, and will easily survive transplanting.

Potentillas should be planted in a sunny area which receives light shade in the hottest part of the day to prevent the flower colour from fading. They are very hardy in all areas.

Very little pruning is required, but it is a good idea each autumn to trim the bush to shape and remove any straggly shoots. Older neglected plants can be cut to 30cm (1ft) from the ground to re-invigorate them.

Their feeding needs are minimal, an annual mulch with well-rotted compost is ideal. If none is available, scatter a couple of handfuls of long lasting fertiliser (blood and bone is good) around the plant and mix it into the soil with a trowel in late spring.

How to Plant a Potentilla
Bought online or from a nursery, your Potentilla will probably come in a largish pot. Dig a hole about the depth of the pot and about twice as wide. Mix a handful of bonemeal into the dug up soil.

Remove the Potentilla from the pot. The way to do this is to place a hand over the soil in the pot with fingers either side of the main stem. Turn the plant upside down and ease it out of the pot. If the plant has become root bound, gently tease out some of the roots from the base of the root ball. Place the potentilla in the hole.

Potentilla fruticosa Wychbold White. Click to enlarge

The top of the soil of the root ball should be level with the garden soil. Adjust the height of the plant by adding soil under it if needed. Fill in the hole around the plant with the dug soil. Firm the soil down as you fill in the hole to ensure the Potentilla isn't blown over in strong wind.

Water well to consolidate the soil.

The normal rules apply when buying potentilla plants. Choose healthy looking plants which are no more then twice size of the pot, with good green foliage and a moist root ball. See the end of this page for pictures of potentillas to help you decide which to buy.

Avoid plants where the roots are spreading out of the holes in the base of the pots, these plants will be root bound and will not transplant easily. If you want to buy a potentilla online, GardenAction recommend the company Crocus - click here.

How to Propagate a Potentilla
By far the easiest and most common method of propagating potentillas is by taking semi-ripe cuttings. Click here for a detailed description of taking and looking after semi-ripe cuttings.

If you want to sow potentilla seed, collect the seed in autumn, sow them in potting compost under a cold frame in spring. they will be ready in autumn to transplant to their final position. Potentillas can also be propagated in spring by digging up the root ball and dividing it with a knife or spade. This sounds a bit drastic, but it works. This division can be done every four years or so.

Potentilla Picture Gallery
Here are a few of the potentillas available in the UK. If you click on most pictures they will enlarge. They are in no particular order.

Red Ace	Red Robin	Miss Wilmott
Day Dawn	Honey	Hopley's Orange
Katherine Dykes	Lady Danesbury	Marion Red Robin
Medicine Wheel Mountain	Orangeade	Rhodocalyx
Sungold	Sunset	William Purdom
Winifred Wynne	Wychbold White	Yellow Gem
	Potentilla x hopwoodiana

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