Key Workers
Plants have been subject to changing tastes and trends ever since we started to cultivate them for their beauty rather than just their medicinal properties. We’ve moved from tulip fever in the 17th century to the recent New Perennial Movement, which has popularised ornamental grasses and perennials. The downside of following the latest fashions, however, is that some great garden-worthy plants end up being overlooked. Once popular, potentillas have suffered this fate, but if you’re looking for low-maintenance, long-flowering plants they are very much worth considering.
Potentilla are a member of the family and are divided into two) and the lower-growing herbaceous perennials. Both have flowers in a good range of colours, from vibrant shades to pretty pastels, with the small, saucer-shaped flowers of resembling those of species roses, and the herbaceous types having pleated leaves and simple flowers like those of their close relative, the strawberry. The fruit they produce, however, is dry and inedible, hence the common name: ‘barren strawberry’. Potentilla are also known as cinquefoils, referring to the leaves, which are usually divided into five leaflets.
