Pontentilla potential.

[Ben Russenholt]

Hello everyone. I work in a garden center and I recently saw this pontentilla and wondered what potentially it would have as a bonsai? I love the roots and trunk, but the flowers and branches have grown quite far out.
Can I leave some of the flowering leafy ones and trim some of the rest and new branches will bud at the trunk or is it too far gone?

 

[leatherback]

I think it would be a little bit too young. But yeah, in general the species is good for bonsai. They take well too trimming. I am not sure whenthe best timeis to avoid die back though.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Potentilla is great as a flowering bonsai. Your tree is young. Potentilla bud back well on older wood. One mistake people make, when cutting back to try to force back budding or budding lower in the tree, they do not cut enough. For deciduous trees (*not pines or conifers) when you cut back to force back budding, cut every growing end. If you leave the branches with flowers the back budding will be sparse, you need to ''cut 'em all''.

You are in Ontario, winter is coming. I would not prune back hard right now. Pruning now could cause a lot of new growth, and there is no time for new growth to mature before winter. If growth is immature, and winter hits, you can experience winter die back. It takes time to mature new growth, somewhere around 2 to 3 months.

Instead, I recommend do a hard prune in either early spring, or early summer. No hard pruning after beginning of August.

 

[amatbrewer]

For what it is worth my kids picked one up a while back. It has sat in a pot on our patio for a few years, and received the occasional shrubbery pruning in early summer, but was otherwise ignored. I finally took a look at it and noticed the trunk is showing some potential.
As others mentioned, it does seem to back bud well after a hard pruning.
Mine seems to like to grow arrow straight branches that once hardened may be too brittle to bend very far (anyone have any luck bending these?). I expect to focus on cut/grow with it.
I have noticed some of my cut branches tend to die back rather than healing over, so it might benefit from cut paste.

In hindsight, had I even considered this as potential future bonsai, I would have put it in a shallow grow box or Anderson flat to develop its roots and trunk with the occasional hard prune, and it looks to me that yours could benefit from that sort of thing as well. As it is, now I am kind of doing mine backward, I have a trunk and branches, but no nabari.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[Ben Russenholt]

This is all amazing advise. I will leave it until spring but re-pot immediately, so it has a month or two to recover.
As far as wintering, do I cover in burlap or let it just hangout on my patio all winter?

 

[leatherback]

Bending is near impossible. I found bending the young stuff when it is green works well. Then let it grow out and trim back. Die-back can be very serious. The roots are dedicated to specific branchess. They have a stronger dedication than say juniper. You cut the wrong root and a part of the tree dies back.

This is one I had. Sold it some time back. They need loads of water in summer (Which is why it is in such a large pot).

 

[Ben Russenholt]

That’s beautiful?
Thanks for sharing.

 

[eb84327]

I picked my first potentilla early summer. Your not kidding about the water.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Ben Russenholt - they are very hardy, but wrapping with burlap is probably your best bet. Does it have to be on the patio? If you could move it to a spot where it is in the shade for the winter, preferably where it can get buried in snow. I put some of my trees on the ground in the flower bed on the shaded north side of the house. Goal: freeze once, stay frozen all winter, thaw once in spring. Freeze-Thaw cycling is rough on trees, that is why shade is important. Burlap can provide shade and windbreak, but putting it in the shade is additional help. Then -25 F or -32 C will be no problem.