Potentilla fruticosa Hopleys Orange - Shrubby Cinquefoil

Potentilla fruticosa 'Hopley's Orange' is a small, bushy, and compact shrub with deciduous, fine, dense, bluish-green foliage. Its generous bright orange flowering will beautifully colour gardens and balconies throughout the summer until autumn! A charming flowering bush, ideal for novice gardeners!

Native to the Northern Hemisphere and belonging to the Rosaceae family, 'Hopley's Orange' potentilla is a small bush, measuring 80cm to 1m (32in to 3ft) in height and width. It forms a bush with a low and compact habit, with numerous ramified basal branches. Its deciduous foliage consists of 3cm (1in) long pinnate leaves with narrow leaflets, turning bluish-green to yellowish-brown in autumn. This elegantly cut foliage is covered with white hairs, giving it a silky and silvery appearance. Its delicate flowers, resembling those of single-flowered roses, are cup-shaped, 3cm (1in) in diameter, with five petals and golden stamens. The abundant flowering, starting in May/June and continuing until the first frost if the autumn is mild, is bright orange, becoming yellowish-orange in the hottest part of summer. It is worth noting that the flowering is more intense at the beginning of summer and loses some of its vigour during the season.

'Hopley's Orange' is very easy to grow. It appreciates being planted in a sunny position, without being too hot, or in partial shade, and in well-drained ordinary soil.

In full sun, potentillas will produce flowers with vibrant colours; in partial shade, the colour will be slightly less intense. Carefree plants, generously flowering and beautifully coloured, potentillas are ideal for effortlessly and durably brightening up the garden or balcony. With their wild rose-like appearance and their modest requirements, they can be used in flower beds, rockeries, borders, low hedges, and pots.

By placing them at the forefront of your flower beds, they will be perfect for quickly obtaining vibrant and colourful scenes, worthy of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh or Claude Monet. They will have a beautiful effect when combined with dahlias, Iris germanica, Achilleas, roses, and rudbeckias. Ideally, plant with them with Mediterranean plants (lavender, rosemary, rock rose, fennel, pittosporum) for a warm and fragrant atmosphere. For a sculptural scene, their compact habit blends perfectly with plants with a more slender or tousled appearance (phormiums, grasses, euphorbias, crocosmias). On a slope or rockery, where they will be ideally placed if your garden soil is heavy and clayey, mix them with dwarf or creeping conifers, trailing ceanothus, landscape roses, and perennial geraniums. Pot cultivation on a balcony or terrace also suits them very well, due to their small size: combine them with lavender, thyme, creeping juniper, and convolvulus.

Anecdote:

This variety received the RHS Award of Garden Merit in 2002, which corresponds to the gold medal of the plant world.