New & promising little potentilla

[Clorgan]

Trip to the garden centre resulted in my first purchase in a long time! Wasn't planning on getting anything but I'm a sucker for a potentilla.

Excited about it, not much thickness but a nicely shaped trunk and the pink flowers

Had a very quick clean up of a few crossing branches but will do a proper job and get the flaky bark off when it's dry. Need to sort out those two very straight branches too.

Unsure whether to put it in the ground to thicken or start working on it as a fun little project to get me back into things..

Any thoughts?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Ground growing shrubs around here can be fraught with danger due to the rabbits. They’ll even prune younger pines. Wondering if it’s the same by you?

One alternative is to keep it in a nursery can, up potting it and adding new nursery media until it’s grown to the point it’s reasonable to pot it in a bonsai pot and media.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Clorgan]

Ground growing shrubs around here can be fraught with danger due to the rabbits. They’ll even prune younger pines. Wondering if it’s the same by you?

One alternative is to keep it in a nursery can, up potting it and adding new nursery media until it’s grown to the point it’s reasonable to pot it in a bonsai pot and media.

Cheers
DSD sends

Luckily not an issue where I am! Yeah I'm leaning towards keeping in a large pot & training as a mame

 

[shohin_branches]

My friend and I were discussing potentilla on Sunday since I had brought a cutting to wire. They're a really fun species to work with once you understand them more. The biggest hurdles most people have is that their vascular tissue is really tied to the branches above it so if you cut off a large branch it will naturally create a shari all down the trunk where that branch was removed. It makes for some really interesting and beautiful trees. My larger one had some dieback from poor watering last fall so I'll have to see how that has affected my live veins up the trunk.

I think a large pot and some fertilizer will help you get some strong growth but also keep it easy enough to monitor and adjust as it grows.

My friend's mame potentilla in bloom. You can see the deadwood and the live vein.


My potentilla cutting. I wanted to see how well they would do a cascade.

 

[Clorgan]

My friend and I were discussing potentilla on Sunday since I had brought a cutting to wire. They're a really fun species to work with once you understand them more. The biggest hurdles most people have is that their vascular tissue is really tied to the branches above it so if you cut off a large branch it will naturally create a shari all down the trunk where that branch was removed. It makes for some really interesting and beautiful trees. My larger one had some dieback from poor watering last fall so I'll have to see how that has affected my live veins up the trunk.

I think a large pot and some fertilizer will help you get some strong growth but also keep it easy enough to monitor and adjust as it grows.

My friend's mame potentilla in bloom. You can see the deadwood and the live vein.
View attachment 599971

My potentilla cutting. I wanted to see how well they would do a cascade.
View attachment 599972

Love these, thanks for sharing!

Think I'll leave mine as is for now

 

[leatherback]

Unsure whether to put it in the ground to thicken or start working on it as a fun little project to get me back into things..

Take cuttings as you prune and develop this one. The cuttings you plant out. In a year they will have overtaken this one in the pot. Then you can use this one to learn the species better to help you with the more mature one you have.

Reason for not ground planting: Then it will be another long-term project. In a pot however these develop fast and you may within this year have something to show that looks nice, giving you a boost to keep going.

Real fat trunks take decades though. Mine is estimated to have been in the ground 45 years (based on the owner of the garden where it was dug; Planted in the late 70-ies)

 

[Clorgan]

Take cuttings as you prune and develop this one. The cuttings you plant out. In a year they will have overtaken this one in the pot. Then you can use this one to learn the species better to help you with the more mature one you have.

Reason for not ground planting: Then it will be another long-term project. In a pot however these develop fast and you may within this year have something to show that looks nice, giving you a boost to keep going.

Real fat trunks take decades though. Mine is estimated to have been in the ground 45 years (based on the owner of the garden where it was dug; Planted in the late 70-ies)
View attachment 600094

Ah this was the perspective I needed - thank you! What you said about having a short term project is spot on - think one of the reasons I drifted from the hobby is that I didn't really have anything that would look good any time soon, all long term projects.

I've got two in the ground at the moment, ones probably been in there 4-5 years so hopefully on its way.

That one is lovely always love seeing your potentillas!