How to grow: Potentilla

In recent years we have all been encouraged to introduce more and more brightly coloured, "muscular" plants into our gardens. These big, bold plantings are seductive in their way, but unassuming plants such as the herbaceous potentillas can bring a quiet elegance to our borders.

The famous botanist, author and artist E A Bowles of Myddleton House counted them among his favourite plants. And the French nurseryman Victor Lemoine produced many cultivars to satisfy public demand at the beginning of the last century. Most of Lemoine's introductions are now lost and the potentilla's popularity has faded.

Few other herbaceous plants are as pest-free, undemanding and as long flowering as potentillas. Time, perhaps, for a second look.

^{Potentilla 'Vilmoriniana' Picture: GAP Photos}

Typically, they have pretty, pleated leaves, resembling those of the strawberry, and shallow saucer-shaped flowers. The foliage of P. argyrophylla is silver, providing a compact and attractive plant even before it becomes smothered with clear-yellow flowers. P. atrosanguinea has similar but less silvered foliage and grows to 18ins. There are a number of forms ranging in flower colour from pale pink to luxurious deep red. Flowering begins at the end of May and continues until the end of August.

A flowering season into late autumn is only one of the attractions of P. x hopwoodiana. An offspring of P. nepalensis and P. recta, this is perhaps the choicest of the potentillas, with pale pink, heart-shaped petals that darken to the colour of raspberry jam towards the centre, and strong stems that do not need staking.

The nepalensis cultivars are generally the largest of the herbaceous potentillas. P. nepalensis 'Roxana' has a coppery tinge to its pink flowers.

Many of the cultivars have double flowers, like small pom-poms. One of the best is P. 'Volcan', which has deep red almost velvet flowers that look simply stunning against its silvery grey-green foliage.

Growing tips

Potentillas need as much sun as you can give them and do best in poor, well-drained soils. P. x hopwoodiana, in particular, seems happiest when baked and starved. The double-flowered cultivars such as P. 'Gloire de Nancy', however, benefit from a good soil. P. atrosanguinea also prefers good soil and a cooler position than other potentillas.

It is easy to divide potentillas in early spring, or collect the seed from species. Sow in autumn on the surface of good seed compost in a tray and cover with grit, then water from underneath.

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