any chance you could give us a pic of your plants ... its the best way to get good advice ...

Name now changed to Dasiphora fruticosa. This shrub is rather late to leaf out and can look ragged if not well tended.....it is often left unpruned. However, Phillips and Barber (1981) state that with potentilla to "ignore conventional pruning" and the only way to rejuvenate them is to "amputate old stems to the ground". IOW, they tolerate hard pruning well :-) And they bloom on new growth so hard pruning early in the growing season does not affect flowering.

the last few times I've tried posting photos they look washed out. the last shrub looked dead. I scratched off bark & cut limbs back bit by bit. there are only 2 live branches. 1 has died. I got these because when I saw them in the mountains they were loaded with bees & the plants were robust. at this location they just seem to languish. not many places in this area sell them. I wonder if they do not care for our climate.

All the advice I've ever seen is to prune the longest to the base of the plant every year. That's what I do.

I did a hard prune on 1 as a test in late march & I think I killed it.