Quote:
Originally Posted by Another John
Hello all
Can anyone give me advice on what to do with a very old Potentilla bush.
It must be a good 30 years old. It flowers every year prolifically with
primrose yellow flowers, and we're very fond of it.
HOWEVER, year by year, inch by inch, it has got too big, and too
scraggy. I need to lower its height, and preferably improve its
bushiness. I definitely don't want to take it to ground level, unless
that is the advice from this group!
Here are two pictures:
Potentilla Pictures, Potentilla Images, Potentilla Photos, Potentilla Videos - Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting
Potentilla Pictures, Potentilla Images, Potentilla Photos, Potentilla Videos - Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting
It's now about 5 feet high -- we'd prefer it to be about four feet. I've
always been reluctant to prune savagely because I'm afraid it won't come
back. However this summer it had to have some branches removed because
of flower-bed -redesign, hence now would be a good time to have a real
go at it.
TIA for any advice
John |
Hi Another John, certainly it needs pruning and with so much of the growth on the 'top' I think from personal experience you have two options :-
option 1--- for this, timing is critical, prune everything by about 1/3 just as it comes into leaf in the spring. By doing it at this time of year when there is that surge of growth, I find, even stems that wouldnt 'break' at other times will throw shoots.
option 2--- at the same time of year, bud burst in the spring, prune half to threequarters of the bush, leaving the remainder as sap drawers, when the pruned branches have new shoots, you can then chop of the remaining few.
This way takes longer but mave prove more successful, especially if the branches your cutting are paerticularly old as they appear to be.
Either way, if your really lucky, you may get lots of shoots from lower down straight away, in this case you could even cut the stems lower again, thus regenerating the bush from lower down. You might find the subsequent growth is strong, straight and like what we call 'watershoot', if this is the case you again have 2 options:- firstly, when the new growth is about 8 ins long, pinch out the tips to encourage bushiness, or, prune all the new growth by 1/3 in the first week of August, pruning anything at this time of year will have the effect of producing a naturally bushy, compact habit.
hope this helps, best wishes Lannerman