Pruning Potentilla: timing and methods, useful recommendations

Ornamental flowering plants, undoubtedly, are an adornment of any personal plot. Some of them are quite capricious, and it is difficult to cultivate them, while others, on the contrary, do not need special care and are able to please their owner for many years. The latter include shrub cinquefoil, or Kuril tea. It is a perennial (its life span can exceed 20 years), various varieties have different parameters (50-100 cm in width and height).

However, any of the varieties needs timely pruning in order to maintain an attractive appearance. Read about how to make it correctly in our material.

To understand in what time frame it is best to cut the cinquefoil bush, you need to decide on the appointment of a haircut. In total, there are 3 types of pruning of Kuril tea.

It is a preventive measure against various diseases, prevents a massive attack of harmful insects. It consists in removing all dried, broken off or parasitized branches. In addition, wilted flower stalks are also cut off. Sanitary pruning is carried out throughout the growing season: spring, summer and autumn.

It is carried out to extend the life of the plant and improve its decorative properties. It is carried out every 5-7 years in late autumn or early spring before the start of sap flow. The procedure is also known as a stump cut of the Potentilla. Only those bushes that have taken root well at the planting site and are more than one year old can be trimmed in this way.

Usually the procedure is divided into 3 stages:

• with the onset of autumn, 5 large old branches are removed, cutting them at the root and leaving hemp up to 15 cm in length;
• a year later, ½ of the remaining branches are removed in the same way;
• the third stage of pruning is carried out a year later, removing the remaining branches.

As the name implies, it is produced to give a beautiful shape to the Potentilla bush and stimulate its flowering. Dates - May-October, that is, the entire vegetative period. You can trim a single plant into a ball or any other, or a group of shrubs planted as a hedge.

Let's tell a little more how to give a decorative shape to a bush. First, decide what it will be: a ball, cube or rectangle. We recommend starting with these simple geometric shapes, and when you become a pro in this business, you can give free rein to your imagination and cut the cinquefoil more creatively.

There are 2 ways to create a shape: "by eye" and wireframe. With the first option, everything is clear: you focus only on your vision of the future figure and remove everything unnecessary. The wireframe method involves making a wire model that is put on the plant, and all branches that go beyond it are clipped.

Let's talk about what kind of inventory you need it is necessary to prepare for any kind of trimming procedure:

• special garden mittens (gloves) made of coarse linen;
• a powerful, sharply sharpened pruner that can easily cut a branch thicker than 1.2 cm in diameter;
• a fan rake will be needed to collect fallen leaves under a bush and between branches, as well as to clean the near-trunk circle from dried grass;
• a construction tape is needed to measure the exact length of the branch to be cut;
• a bag in which you will collect all the cut branches.

It's time to talk about how to properly trim the Potentilla bush in the spring.

The main stages of pruning.

• Take a fan rake and use it to remove any dead leaves and dried grass from the trunk circle. They also recommend "combing" the branches of Kuril tea in order to clean them of old dried peduncles and leaves.
• Take a close look at the bush, figuring out what shape it is best to give it at the moment. The most common is a ball-shaped haircut. Pay attention to the following nuance: if the cinquefoil was unevenly illuminated by the sun, then on the more insulated side its branches will be longer, and to achieve symmetry they will have to be cut to different lengths from different sides. Track this moment throughout the entire haircut procedure.
• It is best to shorten the branches by 1/2, optimally by 1/3 of the length. This, of course, only applies to young and strong branches - remove dried and broken off at the root, treating the cut sites with garden pitch.
• At the end of all work, feed the plant with fertilizer containing phosphates (25 g per 10 L of water) or potassium sulfate (30 g per 10 L). This should happen during the period when the first greenery appears.

Autumn pruning of Potentilla shrub is carried out before the arrival of frost and the beginning of leaf fall. Unlike spring, aimed at giving the plant a decorative look, it is sanitary and involves getting rid of dried and weak branches and shoots growing inside the bush.

Stages of pruning.

• First, examine the plant. Since the foliage has not yet fallen and has a green color, you will immediately see those branches that have dried up and withered. Cut them to the base or to a viable bud if present.
• Next, carry out the procedure for thinning the branches inside the shrub, remove excess shoots.
• Partially cut the young growth to strong branches - this will help to give it the desired shape (spherical, square), so that in the spring the pruning sites will be covered with new shoots and preserve it.
• At the end of the procedure, remove all debris around the trunk: fallen leaves, dry twigs, grass, and also loosen the soil to exclude the possibility of harmful insects and their larvae entering it, which can damage the root system of the plant.
• For prevention, spray the plant with Bordeaux liquid.

It is not necessary to cover the Potentilla for the winter - it will winter so well, since it is not afraid of frost.

In general, pruning Kuril tea in the fall is recommended in those regions where the fall is quite warm and the winter is not severe. If you live in the north, where the temperature reaches a very low level during the cold season, it is better to leave the plant intact: the old branches will hold the snow mass, thereby covering the bush.

Kuril tea is a popular shrub. With its help, you can form hedges, create compositions with other decorative flowering plants or plant bushes one by one. He is unpretentious in care, but you still have to carry out some procedures.

• Weed the plantings regularly, loosen the soil in the near-stem circle of each plant, water abundantly during the dry season.
• Spring mulching with peat or wood chips is recommended - then you will do all the above actions less often.
• If you want Kuril tea to begin to bloom profusely, feed it with a complex mineral mixture intended for flowering plants.
• If the summer is hot outside, Potentilla may begin to shed flowers. To avoid this, sprinkle it with water from a spray bottle every day in the evening. Then the plant will "breathe" and flowering will continue.
• If you follow all the rules for caring for Kuril tea, it will delight you with good health. However, there are diseases that this plant is most susceptible to: ash, rust and spotting. They can be dealt with by treatment with a fungicidal preparation - Bordeaux liquid, "Fitosporin".
• Of the harmful insects, scoops (bat) bother the bushes most of all. They are moths, whose voracious larvae can practically destroy the plant by eating its foliage and damaging the root system. To combat them, purchase an insecticidal agent - "Fitoverm", "Decis" - and process the planting every 1.5-2 weeks.
• Earlier we said that shrub cinquefoil is a frost-resistant plant that does not need winter shelter. However, this applies only to adults, well-rooted bushes - young growth needs to be insulated with fallen leaves.

For information on how to cut cinquefoil, see the next video.