Potentilla fruticosa Solarissima - Shrubby Cinquefoil

The Shrubby Cinquefoil 'Solar'issima' is a variety with bicoloured flowers, unique and highly floriferous. It naturally forms a dense and branching bush, twice as wide as it is tall. Its single flowers with its beautiful orange petals with yellow spots appear from mid-spring to summer, then bloom again in autumn, making it one of the most decorative low shrubs. This plant, with its medium green foliage and beautifully coloured with its flowers, will bring a touch of cheerfulness to flower beds, rockeries, and balconies for several weeks. Easy to grow, it is suitable for all gardeners, even beginners!

The Shrubby Cinquefoils are native to the northern hemisphere and belong to the large botanical family Rosaceae. This family gives us most of our temperate climate fruit trees (Apple trees, Pear trees, Plum trees, Apricot trees, Peach trees, etc.), but also many ornamental plants (Hawthorn, Cotoneaster, Rose of course, Photinia, Prunus...) as well as numerous wild plants that brighten up our countryside. Potentilla fruticosa is a shrub that has given, with the help of breeders, a certain number of charming varieties.
'Solar'issima' shines with its particularly unique bicoloured flowering in the garden. Its flowers with 5 well-spread petals, of a mandarin orange colour, are adorned with a more or less diffuse yellow centre, which stands out well from the medium green foliage. Broader than tall, this shrub measures approximately 50 cm (20in) in height and 100 cm (39in) or more in width at maturity, forming a spreading cushion with a very interesting groundcover habit. Its deciduous foliage is composed of 3 cm (1in) long, pinnate leaves with narrow leaflets. The abundant flowering starts in May-June and finishes in October, weather permitting, with a small lull in August before the resurgence in September.
This low shrub is not very demanding in terms of soil type, being able to grow in a fairly wide pH range. Its only requirement is that the soil is well-drained, allowing it to grow in both moist and relatively dry conditions. 

By placing it at the front of your flower beds, this variety 'Solar'issima' will be perfect for quickly obtaining brightly coloured flower beds, worthy of impressionist paintings. It will have a beautiful effect alongside perennials such as Euphorbia myrsinites, the Corsican Spurge with its beautiful bluish foliage and yellow-green flowers from May to July, just as easy to grow as our little Cinquefoil, or in the same colur scheme, Alchemilla mollis, with its glaucous leaves that become adorned water pearls with the slightest drop of rain. The White-flowered Gauras that bloom at the same time will also be good companions for flower beds, their graceful flowering accompanying that of Solar'issima without competing. On a slope or rockery, where they will be ideally placed if your garden soil is heavy or clay, they can also be associated with dwarf or creeping Conifers, such as the Juniperus horizontalis Blue Chip with its beautiful grey-blue evergreen foliage...