Potentilla fruticosa Crème Brûlée - Shrubby Cinquefoil

Potentilla fruticosa 'Creme Brulée' forms a small, bushy and rounded shrub, offering pretty white double flowers all summer long, which contrast beautifully with elegantly cut dark green foliage. This new American variety is particularly robust and extremely hardy and has its place in all gardens. It is also suitable for beginner gardeners.

Potentilla fruticosa is a woody shrub belonging to the Rosaceae family. The 'Creme Brulée' variety is a deciduous and dense shrub of small size, measuring 80 cm (32in) to 1 m (3ft) in height and 60 to 70 cm (24 to 28in) in width. It forms a well-branched, rounded bush. Its deciduous foliage is dark green. The elegantly cut leaves are covered with white hairs, giving a silky and silver appearance. Its delicate flowers, resembling small double wild roses, are cup-shaped, 3 cm (1in) in diameter, with cream-white petals and golden stamens. The abundant flowering starts in May/June and lasts until the first frost, if the autumn is mild. More intense at the beginning of summer, these flowers lose some of their vigour during the season.

Generously flowering, easy-care plants, potentillas are ideal for brightening up the garden or balcony. With their Scottish rose-like appearance and their very modest requirements, they can be used in multiple ways and installed anywhere: in flower beds, rockeries, borders, low hedges, pots, etc.

They will look beautiful in the company of Dahlias, Iris germanica, Achilleas, Roses, and Rudbeckia. They will ideally combine with Mediterranean plants (Lavender, Rosemary, Rockrose, Fennel, Pittosporum) for a warm and fragrant ambiance. To create a very graphic scene, they can be paired with plants with a more slender or tousled habit (Phormiums, Grasses, Euphorbias, Crocosmias). On a slope or a rockery, where they will be ideally placed if your garden soil is heavy or clay, they blend with dwarf or creeping Conifers, creeping Ceanothus, or landscape Roses.