shrubby cinquefoil

order: rosales
family: rosaceae
genus: dasiphora (potentilla)
species: fruticosa
cultivar: 'Kobold'

First Story

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2 august 2012

Cinquefoil belongs to the rose family, a family that is distributed in all continents except Antarctica. Just as I'm writing this text, I discover that it's no longer placed under the genus potentilla, which is kind of sad. Now I'll have to remember not to call it a potentilla, but a dasiphora... So if it's not a potentilla, then it's not a cinquefoil, not a "five leaves".

Well, well... whatever dasiphora means, it still has five leaves, or as the germans call it, "five fingers". The reason I got this plant is because it has five fingers on each hand, just like I do. I ordered this plant online in late winter, even before the garden centres started bringing in different plants for sales. I simply transplanted it into this larger pot, although a bigger pot wasn't necessary. I first let the new shoots grow long and bear flowers. After the first flush of flowers, I pruned it back to make a rounded silhouette. I saw that our neighbours also have a same plant in their garden. A big rounded bush with flowers lasting until now. I wonder if mine would have given me more flowers had I not pruned it back that early. However I think the pruning was necessary, because the bush gets out of shape very easily, if it's to be kept small.

I found that this plant prefers the soil to be more on the wet side than on the dry side. When it's almost dry, some of the leaves will just wilt. You may not notice it right away, but it will show up a couple of days later. So the whole thing becomes a little unsightly. I'll thin out some of its volume in spring to allow light and air to penetrate into the inner part. I'll also prune back hard before the first shoots appear, so that I don't have to prune it so soon after the first growth and allow it to flower longer.

Update

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September pruning.

Throughout the growing season I've been pinching back new growth every now and then. Now that the growing season is coming to an end I thinned out the plant for one last time this year. In spring next year some of the major branches have to go.

Update

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2 february 2014

In 2013, I mainly let my cinquefoil plant grow uninhibited, skipped trimming completely and supplied it pellets of mixed dung frequently. At the end of the year, the branches have become long and thick. After leaf fall it was time to tidy up. I first began by cutting back the excessively long branches. Then I proceeded to remove crossing branches.

By this time the soil surface is completely covered with two species of moss, one of which sent up a crowded mass of long, decorative sporophytes.