Why are these shrubs planted everywhere? The appeal of shrubby cinquefoil

This is shrubby cinquefoil. It is widely planted because it gives a lot for relatively little effort: a long flowering season, resilience and a low, fairly tidy habit.

• It flowers for a long time, often well into late summer, as your photograph shows.
• It copes with sun and a fair amount of drought, and usually grows in ordinary planting beds without being particularly fussy.
• It stays low and dense, making it useful along borders and paths, as a low hedge or for ground cover.
• It is easy to rejuvenate if it becomes untidy, which makes it practical for public spaces and larger planting schemes.
• Its yellow flowers stand out and bring colour to places where more demanding shrubs would be unwelcome.

That is why it is planted where people want cheerful flowers over a long period with little maintenance. The drawback is that it can become rather straggly and woody with age, particularly late in the season. To keep it looking good, pruning is usually done in late winter rather than now, at the end of August.