Content
Cinquefoil Red Ice (Ace) is an elegant shrub plant, known to many gardeners under the name Kuril tea. Cinquefoil is not only a decorative decoration for gardens, but also a real storehouse of useful substances.
Description of Red Ice Potentilla
Kuril tea Red Ice belongs to the genus Cinquefolia and grows as a shrub with numerous branches. The bark of the branches is colored brownish-red, and the leaves have a light rich green color. The Red Ice bush grows up to 65 - 70 cm in height, and the crown exceeds this size by 2 times. The plant has beautiful and original flowers that look like corollas consisting of 5 petals. At the beginning of summer, when Red Ice begins to bloom, the buds turn red-orange, and from the middle of flowering until the end (beginning of October), the flowers acquire a yellow tint, and bright orange blotches appear on their petals.
Red Ice cinquefoil in landscape design
Red Ice cinquefoil potentilla fruticosa red ace is a perennial crop that is considered easy to care for. Cinquefoil can get along well in any soil, as long as there is enough sunlight. Therefore, Red Ice is a plant that can be planted even in city conditions. Potentilla is used for growing in flower beds, as well as in containers and pots. You can also use it to create alpine slides.
Red Ice cinquefoil, a photo of which makes it possible to appreciate the beauty and elegance of the plant, is most often planted along borders in landscape design, thereby creating a hedge that delights with its flowering from early summer to mid-autumn.
Planting and caring for Red Ice cinquefoil
Red Ace cinquefoil is unpretentious in care and cultivation, so there are no special requirements for its cultivation. The main thing is to follow the general rules of cultivation and follow a number of recommendations.
Preparing the landing site
Since Red Ice loves the sun, it is best to breed it in areas with good lighting. If there is slight shading at the planting site, then this is quite acceptable: the main requirement is that moisture does not stagnate in the soil.
It is worth noting that Red Ice cinquefoil tolerates cold winds and drafts well, so it is not necessary to build additional protection from these natural phenomena.
Landing rules
You can plant Red Ice shrubs not only in spring, but also in autumn. Moreover, for young seedlings, the optimal time for planting is mid-to-late September. During this period, many nutrients are present in the soil, which has a beneficial effect on the rooting of cinquefoil. A month after planting, Red Ice will be completely ready for winter.
If planting is carried out in the spring, then it is necessary to wait until it warms up so that the soil is warm enough. But you shouldn’t delay this, because the plant needs time for good root development, otherwise the shrub will first sprout foliage.
Despite the fact that Red Ice cinquefoil is unpretentious to soil fertility, you should be wary of planting it in clay soil, as it can accumulate a lot of moisture, which negatively affects the growth and development of the plant.
Once a suitable site has been selected, soil preparation can begin.
- Holes for Red Ice shrubs need to be dug 2 weeks before planting so that the soil has time to settle. The depth of the holes should not be more than 50 cm, the width of the holes should be approximately the same. When planting shrubs as a hedge, it is necessary to dig small trenches of the same depth instead of holes.
- Next, you should prepare a drainage system so that the roots of the plant do not rot from excess moisture. For these purposes, crushed stone, pieces of tiles and expanded clay are used. No more than 20 cm of drainage is placed in each hole. This is quite enough for the water to come out in a timely manner.
- The soil dug from the hole (1/2 part) must be mixed with dried leaves and humus, adding a little mineral fertilizer and sand. The prepared mixture should completely cover the laid drainage.
- Before planting, it is important to inspect the root system of the cinquefoil. All damaged areas must be removed. The roots can be soaked for 40 - 50 minutes in a manganese solution to disinfect the planting material.
- Red Ice cinquefoil is planted in a special way: you need to make a mound in the middle of the hole, put a sprout on it, spread the roots in different directions and sprinkle with the remaining soil. Then the soil is compacted a little and watered with warm water at the rate of 1 bucket per bush.
- The final step is mulching.
Watering and fertilizing
Red Ace cinquefoil is a very unpretentious plant. But to achieve the most abundant flowering, it is worth making some efforts.
Immediately after planting, seedlings need frequent watering (once a week in the presence of precipitation and every 3 days in dry periods). Moisture is necessary for the plant to take root and begin to grow stems. Adult specimens can receive moisture only from nature. If there is no rainfall for a long time, then you can water the plantings - about 10 liters of water for each bush.
It is necessary to loosen the soil of the cinquefoil only if the soil has not been mulched. The procedure is carried out the next day after watering or precipitation. In addition, during loosening, weeds can also be removed.
As for fertilizers, Red Ice needs them only in the second year of life. Fertilize in the spring before the plant begins to bloom. Most often, ready-made fertilizers are used, which contain phosphorus and potassium. The application method and dilution proportions are indicated on the packaging.
Trimming
Trim the bush in stages:
- The first pruning is carried out as a sanitary treatment of the plant.Shoots and branches that have lost their strength are pruned throughout the entire growth period. After wintering, all damaged or dried shoots are also removed.
- Every 3 years, starting from mid-April and ending with the last days of April, formative pruning is carried out, in which the tops of the branches are cut off by 5 - 10 cm, giving the shrub the most preferable decorative appearance. If necessary, formation is carried out in the month of October.
Preparing for winter
Typically, Red Ice does not need special preparation for the winter. In climatic conditions where winters are not too frosty, the cinquefoil is not even covered, since it is a frost-resistant specimen. If winters are more severe in the growing region, then Red Ice must be covered with peat or other protection from frost must be created.
Propagation of Red Ace Potentilla
Cinquefoil shrub has many methods of reproduction. Gardeners themselves choose the most optimal option for themselves, since each method has its own characteristics:
- Propagation by seeds – the process is long and extremely labor-intensive. In this case, seedlings can enter open ground only 4 years after sowing the seeds. In addition, there is a risk that the varietal characteristics of the crop may not be preserved.
- Reproduction by layering - a more common method used by flower growers. In the autumn, the most developed shoot is selected from the bush, freed from the petals, the shoot is bent to the ground, making a small depression, secured with pins and sprinkled with soil. The shoot will take root before spring.And already in April it will be possible to separate it from the mother bush and transplant it to a permanent place. With this method of propagation, the cinquefoil will delight you with its flowering only after a year.
- Reproduction by dividing the bush. To carry out the process, you will need a bush at least 5 years old. In the spring, it needs to be completely dug up, divided into parts (each part must have a good root system), and replanted. With this method, the bushes will begin to bloom this year.
- Propagation by cuttings. This is also a very long and painstaking process. In order to carry out cuttings of Red Ice cinquefoil, you need to select the woody part of the branch and cut it off. Mix peat and sand in a 1 to 1 ratio in a container, plant the cutting there so that no more than 2-3 cm of the plant remains on the surface. After a year, it will be possible to plant cinquefoil in open ground.
Diseases and pests
Red Ace cinquefoil is one of the plants that manifest themselves as very resistant crops to various kinds of diseases. But even such a resistant plant can suffer from a number of ailments and pests.
- Rot. With improper care and stagnation of moisture in the soil, rot can develop. It is destructive for cinquefoil, so it is better not to allow such a life-threatening process for the plant. When the first signs of pathology are detected, it is worth treating the bush with insecticides. In some cases, this procedure does not help. To save the remaining plants, it is necessary to destroy diseased specimens by digging them up and burning them.
- Rust can affect cinquefoil if there are coniferous plants on the site.Brown spots on the green parts of the plant are a serious symptom of infection, so if they are detected, it is necessary to treat the bush with preparations containing boron and sulfur.
- To prevent the cinquefoil from attacking aphid, It is better to carry out preventive treatment. To do this, in early spring the bush must be watered with special products that can be purchased in the store.
- Too dry and hot summers can trigger development on the cinquefoil spider mite. To combat it, you will also need special preparations and the destruction of already damaged parts of the bush.
Conclusion
Red Ice cinquefoil is an elegant shrub that does not require special care, gets along well in any soil, and is not only a beautiful garden decoration, but also a very useful plant.
