Collecting garden Potentilla bush

Ingvill

Shohin
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I have a VERY neglected Potentilla bush in my garden that I'm gonna tidy up this weekend.
That involves removing quite a bit of dead branches and thorough trimming of healthy branches that have become very leggy etc.
The cleaning up will no doubt impose stress on the bush.

My future plan is (obviously) to try and turn it into a bonsai and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience digging these up?
Are they fragile in this regard? Any special considerations?
Or can I just go "all in" and dig it up in the spring? I assume spring is the best time to do the dig?
Should I wait longer due to my heavy clean up this summer?

Any tips is very much appreciated :)
 
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I haven't put any into containers for bonsai, but we rearranged some in our landscape. I dug a good rootball, but they still had a lot of dieback.

One's I've seen in the mountains have really old dead branches that turn white/gray and look very pretty imo. So you may want to keep some of them longer until you decide.
 

Paulpash

Masterpiece
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They are very vigorous. Fairly easy to collect - just dig a trench and get as good a rootball as you can. They like a LOT of water when in a container.
 

amatbrewer

Shohin
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I have one that was in a large pot and neglected for a few years. I hacked it way back and put it into a training pot. Then the following year I hacked it back further and put it into a small pot. Both times it reacted with vigorous growth and required additional trimming.
Seems very hearty.
 

Ingvill

Shohin
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Excellent! Thank you so much guys :)
 
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