Is Cinquefoil deer resistant?
Potentilla sp.
About Cinquefoil
Strawberry-like leaves and small yellow flowers, low and tough, and reliably passed over by deer. The name covers two quite different plants. Shrubby cinquefoil is a small woody shrub that flowers from June to frost and is one of the hardest-working plants available for a hot dry bank. The herbaceous perennial species are lower, softer and shorter-lived. Either way the requirement is the same and unusual: poor soil and full sun. Fed and watered it goes leggy and stops flowering, which is the opposite of most gardeners' instinct when a plant looks sparse. Shear the shrubby types back by a third in early spring. Old neglected plants get woody and bare at the base and are better replaced than renovated.
Soil and care
- Soil pH
- 5.5 to 7.5
- Drainage
- Well drained
- Water
- Low
- Spacing
- 12 to 18 in apart
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Maintenance
- Low
Similar to Cinquefoil
Other perennials with the same deer rating.
- Anise HyssopAgastache sp.Zones 4–9, genus rangeRarely damaged
- Basket of GoldAurinia saxatilisZones 3–7Rarely damaged
- Bearded IrisIris germanicaZones 3–9Rarely damaged
- Bigleaf GoldenrayLigularia dentataZones 4–8Rarely damaged
- Bleeding HeartLamprocapnos spectabilisZones 3–9Rarely damaged
- Butter and EggsLinaria vulgarisZones 3–9Rarely damaged
Where Cinquefoil grows
Hardy across most of these 50 states on zone range alone. Mountain and coastal areas sit outside the ranges used here, so check your own zone before ordering.
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- New York
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
- Virginia
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Wisconsin
- Ohio
- Indiana
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- North Carolina
- Tennessee
- Georgia
- Texas
- Colorado
- California
- Oregon
- Washington
- New Hampshire
- Vermont
- Maine
- Rhode Island
- Delaware
- West Virginia
- Kentucky
- South Carolina
- Florida
- Alabama
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- Iowa
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
- Montana
- Wyoming
- Idaho
- Utah
- Nevada
- Arizona
- New Mexico
- Alaska
- District of Columbia
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Every list Cinquefoil belongs to.
Hardy in these zones
Common questions about Cinquefoil
- Is Cinquefoil deer resistant?
- Cinquefoil (Potentilla sp.) is rated Rarely Damaged on the Rutgers NJAES four-tier scale. Deer almost always leave this alone.
- What hardiness zones does Cinquefoil grow in?
- Cinquefoil is hardy in USDA zones 3 to 8. Outside that range it will either not survive winter or will struggle with summer heat. That is the range across the genus, so a named species or cultivar may be narrower.
- Does Cinquefoil grow in shade?
- No. Cinquefoil wants full sun and will grow thin and flop in shade.