An easy care, continuous flowering & Hardy shrub

Shrubby cinquefoil flowers have 5 petals and many yellow stamens.

The Goldfinger cultivar is a moderate grower that reaches 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide at maturity.

Goldfinger is a bright yellow cultivar with slightly cupped petals.

Shrubby cinquefoils are easy care and reliable, suitable for sunny locations. Mango Tango pictured at Art's Nursery.

Flowers continue to form on the new stems during the summer.

Bella Bellissima is a slow growing cultivar with pink flowers that deepen with age.

Green tufted leaflets cover the many stems.

Bella Bellissima is a compact 3’x3’ on mounded green foliage.

Mango Tango is aptly named and one of my favorites.

Common Name:  shrubby cinquefoil
Botanical Name:  Potentilla fruticosa
Form:    round, dense, compact
Family:  Rosaceae
Genus:  Potentilla
Species:  fruiticosa
Plant Type: deciduous shrub
Mature Size:  2.00 to 4.00 feet x 3.00 to 5.00 feet
Maintenance: low, easy care shrub
Origin:  North America, Europe an Northern Asia
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 7
Foliage:  compound-pinnate, 5 narrow elliptic leaflets, green with a slight blue tint
Flowers: June to autumn, yellow, 1.5” across, 5 petals,
Exposure:  full sun is best for flowering, tolerates light shade
Soil:  soil tolerant but prefers evenly moist soils with good drainage
Uses:  specimen, massing, foundation planting, mixed borders, low hedge, containers
Attracts: butterflies, pollinators
Invasive Tendencies: none
Tolerates: air pollution, rabbits, deer, drought, erosion, sandy soils
Propagation:   softwood cutting in early summer
Pruning:  cut back in fall or winter and remove spindly, old and dead stems
​Problems:  minor issues with powdery mildew, does not like shade and wet soils

Comments:   This easy to grow shrub is a native of many parts of the northern hemisphere, including North America. This well-behaved 3-foot little shrub with it’s bright yellow flowers, is popular in many gardens. Flowering begins in June and continues throughout the summer into autumn. There simple flowers have 5 cupped petals that surround a mass of yellow stamens. Green tufted leaves cover the many stems.
 
Potentillas are tough cookies. They have excellent winter hardiness tolerating conditions of minus 40 °C, (-40 °F). Although they adapt to many types of soils, including clay, potentillas must have good drainage. Versatile cinquefoils also tolerate drought once they are well established.
 
Due to their dense and twiggy growth, pruning is essential to keep plants popping out lots of flowers. Cut back all stems by a quarter in fall, winter or early spring. During that time, remove any dead stems and overly mature ones that are not producing blossoms. Remove all spindly stems and ones growing towards the plant centre.
 
Although cinquefoil's yellow flowers are adorable, other colours are now available including white, orange, amber and pink. Check out your local nursery for new varieties or go for the classic yellow species that never disappoints.  

Bella Sol is a hardy cultivar suitable for USDA zones 2 to 6.

The pure white blossom of an Abbotswood cinquefoil.

Abbotswood shrubby cinquefoil is Royal Horticultural Society award winner.

Mango Tango is a neatly rounded shrub that grows 2 feet tall and wide.