Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings: Personal observations on a wide variety of subjects. Photographs of creatures and things that are taken on seeing the unusual as well as everyday things.

Peeping, petal packed, primrose potentilla - perfect

As a young child I sometimes went to my uncle's place, in Devon. In my uncle's garden he had three beautiful potentilla bushes. I remember thinking how wonderful they were covered in hundreds and hundreds of bright yellow primrose flowers. I had never seen primroses growing on bushes before and I would stand transfixed in front of them as though they were enchanted. My uncle eventually gave me a small root and stem from the bottom of one of the plants. It was watered and carefully wrapped in a polythene bag and transported safely back home where it was already looking a sad, little, limp specimen. It was lovingly planted and watered and it thrived ... I have had a piece of the same potentilla bush in my garden ever since - no matter where I have lived.

I do not know the name of this particular variety but it carries more flowers than any other variety I have ever come across. Unlike most of the potentillas it has a propensity to grow quite upright, is slightly taller than is usual, and spreads very slowly from the base which throws out separate branches from the roots.

Potentilla or Primrose bush

8 comments:

HEALTH NUT WANNABEE MOM said...

These are just beautiful. I can only imagine how amazing your garden is! Thank you for sharing!

Anonymous said...

what a nice story - the plant is beautiful

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your great pictures, and alliternation. I enjoy them.

Unknown said...

Thank you for all the lovely comments ... I enjoy all of the flowers and creatures in my garden and also playing around with words too. I suppose that is a perfect combination.

cathy said...

you are great at photography! Lovely flowers.

none said...

Any ideas on getting potentilla to flower more? Mine flower so sparsely and I see some that are just amazing!

Anonymous said...

Doug
It often means that your soil is not suitable for the plant if you are short of flowers on flowering shrubs ... what type of soil do you have? Mine is alkaline - it contains a lot of lime and is clay based. They seem well suited to this type of soil. Besides soil type - how often do you feed your bushes? A good all round fertiliser is useful in the spring such as Growmore (a BabyBio product). Phostrogen is also very good but needs to be applied at least once every two months on bushes. If you have no pets then bonemeal or blood, fish and bone is really good ... but if you are handling these natural type products use rubber gloves and a trowel to dig well in to the surface soil. Do not use any plant food that contains bonemeal if you have children or pets!

Anonymous said...

Wow, it's really beautiful. I love the yellow flowers.