Content
Cinquefoil Pink Beauty (Lovely Pink) or Kuril tea is a low, up to 0.5 m shrub, densely covered with emerald greens and pale pink flowers. This is the only cinquefoil of its kind that blooms pink - in the rest of the species, they are predominantly yellow.
The native land of the plant is the northern hemisphere, therefore, the culture is extremely unpretentious, tolerates any weather whims, urban gas pollution, and drought. This type of Potentilla shrub is considered the best ornamental shrub of its kind. Designers and florists love culture for its unpretentiousness and long flowering period - from May to early November.
Description Potentilla Lovely Pink
This is a short shrub (up to 50 cm) with a dense, lush, creeping crown. In diameter, it can reach 80 cm. After planting a seedling, its shoots grow up to 15 cm per year.
The branches of the shrub during the flowering period from May to early November are densely covered with large pink flowers up to 5 cm in diameter. These can be both single buds and inflorescences collected in a brush. The core of the flower is always bright yellow.
The leaves are small, oblong, the length ranges from 2 to 3 cm. Their color is dark green, the leaves grow in bunches of 5 pieces.
Shoots are long, well-branched, creeping, covered with red-brown bark.
Potentilla root superficial, branched with a large number of small processes.
Cinquefoil Pink Beauty in landscape design
This culture is a perennial, long-liver. After planting, it will delight with its flowering for about 30 more years. Therefore, the place for planting shrubs must be chosen especially carefully.
Lovely Pink cinquefoil is often used for landscaping the urban landscape: parks, gardens, squares. The plant looks good as a natural curb or hedge. Looks organically in group plantings of ornamental shrubs and trees. Pink Beauty shrub cinquefoil is perfectly combined with conifers, evergreens. It is better to place them near rockeries, at an alpine slide, at the edge of a forest area.
For landscaping a personal plot or flower beds, several different types of decorative Potentilla are used. They all bloom at different times, the garden changes picturesquely in accordance with the change of season. The photo shows how vividly the landscape looks with the Lovely Pink Potentilla located on it, surrounded by other representatives of the species.
All cultivars of Potentilla are unpretentious, have high decorative qualities, bloom for a long time - from June to November. Pink Beauty Cinquefoil is suitable for compositions in which flowering perennials are used.
Planting and caring for Potentilla Lovely Pink
Cinquefoil shrub Lovely Pink or, as it is also called, Kuril tea, is undemanding to the composition of the soil, easily tolerates frost and drought. But on loose soils it develops and blooms better.
Landing site preparation
Shrub cinquefoil is planted in open sunny areas, shrubs and light shading will tolerate well. Before planting, the soil is carefully dug up, a small amount of lime is added.
Landing rules
Cinquefoil Lovely Pink in the form of seedlings is rooted in early spring after the snow melts. The hole is dug 2 times the volume of the roots of a young plant. Potentilla's rhizome is highly branched, it is important not to damage the processes when transferring a seedling to a new place. The distance between the seedlings is 30 cm, ideally 50 cm.
The soil that remains after digging the planting hole is mixed with humus, leafy soil and sand in a ratio of 2: 2: 1. It is also good to add about 100-150 g of complex mineral fertilizers. At the bottom of each planting pit, it is necessary to make drainage, laying out a thin layer of lime expanded clay, sprinkle it on top with a small layer of the prepared soil mixture.
Landing Algorithm:
- A beauty (Lovely) shrub sapling is placed in the center of the planting hole. Make sure that the root collar rises above the soil level.
- Lovely Pink's rhizome is covered with soil mixture to the top of the planting pit, the earth is tamped.
- After planting, each seedling is thoroughly watered.
Watering and feeding
After a month after planting Potentilla, watering is reduced to 2 times a month. It is especially important to water the shrubs during periods of prolonged summer drought. In spring and autumn, Pink Beauty Potentilla does not need frequent watering.
Water the culture only with warm water, in the evening, after sunset. Water consumption per 1 bush - 10 liters. After watering, the trunk circle is sprinkled with large sawdust or chips. In this case, you will have to loosen the soil and remove weeds much less often. Lovely Pink's Potentilla has a superficial root system - loosening is carried out with great care, do not deepen by more than 10 cm.
In the spring, after the snow melts, as soon as the ground warms up, any complex fertilizer for flowering shrubs is applied under the root of Lovely Pink's Potentilla. It is important that it contains nitrogen. In the summer, they also feed the shrubs once, but already with phosphorus fertilizers, in the fall they make potash fertilizers. Mineral fertilizers can be replaced with organic ones.
Pruning
To beautifully form the crown of Pink Beauty Potentilla, bring its shape to the classic description, stimulate flowering, pruning is carried out in the spring. The shrub is cultivated from April to May. First, dry and damaged shoots are removed, then long and weak ones.
If the bush grows slowly, cut off 1/3 of the length of the shoots; with accelerated growth (more than 20 cm per year), the shoots can be shortened by half. Re-pruning Lovely Pink, if necessary, is carried out in the fall, at the end of the flowering period.
Preparing for winter
Only a Beauty (Lovely) seedling of the first year of life can endure poorly wintering. In autumn, at the end of October, it is watered, the area around the trunk is covered with a thick layer of mulch. Shoots and leaves of Lovely Pink must be treated with a solution of Bordeaux liquid. The procedure will prevent the development of fungal diseases under the snow. In the spring, Pink Beauty will be absolutely healthy. You can tie the branches into one bundle, wrap them up with any covering material.
Reproduction
Cinquefoil Lovely Pink can be propagated by seeds, cuttings, layering, dividing the bush. Seed propagation is suitable for this specific crop, as varietal traits are not transmitted in this type of propagation.
Pink Beauty seeds are germinated at the end of February, planting them in seedling boxes under a film. At the same time, a strict temperature regime of + 18-22 ᵒС is observed. After 15-20 days, the first shoots appear. In open ground, Lovely Pink seedlings are transplanted the next year, flowering will begin after 2 years.
You can easily propagate the Pink Beauty Potentilla by dividing the bush. The procedure is carried out in the fall, immediately after the bush has faded.An adult Pink Beauty plant (over 3 years old) is dug up, the rhizome is divided into 2-3 parts. It is important that there are at least 2 shoots on each separated bush. The cut site must be treated with ash. The separated Lovely Pink shrubs are immediately rooted in the new location.
Reproduction by cuttings is carried out in the middle of summer. A young, green shoot of Pink Beauty is cut off, divided into sections of 15 cm. One end of the separated part is soaked in Kornevin's solution for an hour. Then the cuttings are planted in the ground, in the shade, covered with glass jars. After 20 days, the Lovely Pink stalk will take root.
Cinquefoil Pink Beauty is a creeping plant, it is easy to root it by layering. To do this, the bark of a young shoot is cleaned in the center, the area of damage is no more than 0.5 cm. This place is pressed against the shoot and regularly moistened. After a month, roots will appear at the site of adhesion. The young plant can be separated from the mother bush and transplanted.
Diseases and pests
Cinquefoil shrub Pink Beauty is resistant to most garden pests and diseases. But it can suffer from fungal infections: spotting, rust or powdery mildew. At the first signs of leaf damage, the appearance of yellow or whitish spots, wilting, curling, the bush should be treated with a fungicide solution (for example, Bordeaux liquid).
For prophylactic purposes against fungal infections, foliar treatment of Potentilla Lovely Pink is carried out with a solution of manganese or boric acid. A weak solution is made and the area of the trunk circle is watered with it.
Insects eschew Lovely Pink's pink Potentilla (Beauty), but scoops love to feast on its lush greenery. Chemicals of the latest generation are used against harmful insects.
Conclusion
Cinquefoil Pink Beauty is a lushly flowering long-lived shrub. This culture is suitable for those gardeners who do not like to delve into the intricacies of caring for ornamental plants. Cinquefoil takes root well and grows in almost any region of Russia; winter frosts are not terrible for it. With a minimum of effort, you can plant greenery in your garden, alley, park for many years. Cinquefoil is suitable for cultivation in the city and in the countryside.
