Potentilla fruticosa Tilford Cream - Shrubby Cinquefoil

Potentilla Tilford Cream offers a very long flowering period for several months. Its cream-white flowers continue to bloom throughout the summer season, making it a very attractive plant for borders. Adapting to most growing conditions and highly resistant to cold weather, this small shrub forms a spread-out cushion that is highly decorative, with bright flowering. Well-suited for container gardening to brighten up a balcony, this Potentilla has many qualities.

Potentilla fruticosa is a woody shrub that belongs to the large and important family of Rosaceae, which gives us with so many ornamental species (roses, of course, but also Photinia, Cotoneaster, Amelanchier...) as well as most of our temperate climate fruit trees (Pear, Apple, Cherry, Peach, Apricot, Plum...). The genus Potentilla has two major groups: herbaceous plants, like the spring Potentilla found in our fields, and shrub species.
The 'Tilford Cream variety offers long-lasting flowers, starting in June and lasting until September. This makes it a valuable plant in the garden, especially since it is very easy to grow, perfect for the novice gardener. Its pretty single flowers with 5 petals, well-spread, are quite large ,3-4 cm (1-2in) and creamy-white, enhanced with a yellow stamen centre. These flowers create a bright spot in the garden, particularly appreciated on cloudy and dark days. It is loved by bees and butterflies, making it useful as well as decorative. Its deciduous foliage is green to grey-green, composed of small narrow leaves measuring 2 to 3 cm (1in), which highlight the flowers.
This shrubby Potentilla forms large cushions about 1 m (3ft) wide and 60 cm (24in) tall in about ten years. With moderate growth, it grows at a rate of 10 to 25 cm (4 to 10in) per year and adapts to most garden soils, whether neutral or moderately alkaline, in full sun or partial shade. Once well established, it is relatively drought-tolerant, although it will always appreciate some watering in summer.

In full sun, Potentillas will produce more intensely coloured flowers, while in partial shade the colour will be slightly less intense. Easy-to-grow plants, floriferous, and beautifully coloured, 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 planted anywhere: in flower beds, rock gardens, borders, low hedges, containers..under most climates and in well-drained soil. 

Potentilla Tilford Cream is perfect for forming a border in a flower bed, along a path, on a small slope, or even in a container on a balcony or terrace. It will have a beautiful effect when paired with colourful small shrubs that are just as easy to grow as it is. Choose plants with staggered flowering times to enjoy a colourful scene all year round. At the beginning of the season, Scarlet Storm Chaenomeles speciosa, a small Japanese Quince, will illuminate your flower bed with its red flowers appearing on leafless branches. The beautiful Dentate Spirea, or Spiraea cinerea Grefsheim, will then take over in April-May with its branches covered in small white flowers. To accompany the flowering of our little Potentilla, you can opt for Weigela florida Nana Purpurea with its pretty pink flowers, whose green foliage with purple hues will provide a pleasant contrast. Later in the summer, the magnificent dark pink flowering of Lagerstroemia indica Houston, a dwarf Indian Lilac, will stand out against that of 'Tilford Cream'.