At the beginning of every season I take inventory of my garden to see what works and what doesn\u2019t, and where the \u201choles\u201d are in my current planting schemes.\u00a0 This task is easier to do in the spring, because the growth is less abundant.\u00a0 Every year I vow to plant more tulips and I generally keep that vow.\u00a0 The squirrels sometimes have other ideas, which is partly why I have to renew the vow every year.<\/p>\n
This spring I have decided that I need more primroses.\u00a0 The primroses already in the garden are opening now and they seem so right to me\u2014undemanding, cheerful, and the essence of spring.\u00a0 Some of mine are nursery specimens.\u00a0 Others are grocery store impulse purchases that I bought for less than three dollars apiece, displayed in the house at the end of winter and installed in the garden when spring arrived.\u00a0 A grocery store primrose sits in a tiny planting bed right by the side steps leading up to the front porch.\u00a0 It has gone through four or five winters and come back faithfully every spring, opening its blue petals on the first warm days.\u00a0 Usually I surround it with some spring pansies, but this year I think I will give it the companionship of additional primroses.<\/p>\n
Vita Sackville-West, gardener and writer, had the same idea long ago when she mused on primroses in one of her garden columns. \u201cI remembered that the whole primula family was gregarious in its tastes and hated the loneliness of being one solitary, expensive little plant.\u00a0 They like huddling together…\u201d<\/p>\n
There are 400 species of primroses or primula, as they are to those who use Latin names, and even more cultivated varieties.\u00a0 The entire clan is tied together by a significant distinguishing feature–the rosette of basal leaves that appears before the flowers.\u00a0 I think the rosettes look like small lettuces.\u00a0 The flower stems can be long or short, but they are always leafless.\u00a0 Left to their own devices, all primulas would have five petals apiece, fused into a tube at the bottom of each flower.\u00a0 Breeders are never content to leave well enough alone, however, and many varieties now feature double sets of petals.\u00a0 The doubles look like little roses, which seems rather fitting for plants that start out with a rosette of leaves.<\/p>\n
Rock garden enthusiasts are fond of the alpine auricula primroses, featuriing flowers with white or gold centers that contrast with the darker petals.\u00a0 These are usually sold by specialist nurseries and need the excellent drainage provided in rock gardens or special troughs.<\/p>\n
Show auriculas are unusual in appearance and can be combinations of gray, pea green, red, yellow or blue-purple, often with white edges.\u00a0 The flowers and often the foliage are covered with a floury white substance that auricula fanciers call \u201cfarina.\u201d\u00a0 These primroses are fascinating to look at, but require special glasshouse conditions to flourish.\u00a0 Rain damages their appearance, which is why the English auricula aficionados build little \u201ctheaters\u201d or partially enclosed display boxes to showcase their prize specimens.\u00a0 The relatives of the show auriculas are known as \u201cborder auriculas.\u201d\u00a0 They feature many of the same color combinations, but can stand up to outdoor garden conditions.<\/p>\n
Most of us do not want primroses that have to be treated like delicate invalids.\u00a0 For us, there are the perennial candelabra primroses, with tall stalks topped by rounded heads of small, five-petaled flowers in an array of bright or pastel colors.\u00a0 Some of the best of these are the \u2018North Hill Strain,\u2019 developed in Vermont by garden writers Joe Eyk and Wayne Winterrowd.\u00a0 North Hill primroses bloom in a mix of warm pastels, including shades of melon and yellow.\u00a0 They look wonderful near water, which suits their moisture-loving nature.<\/p>\n
There are also many low-growing primroses, much like the supermarket type.\u00a0 They make excellent spring groundcovers when you group them in arrangements of three, five or seven plants.\u00a0 Right now, many retailers are selling the Belarina primrose series, which features double flowered plants in an array of colors including cream, orange-yellow bi-colors and pink.<\/p>\n
Best of all, primroses are most fond of partial shade, which means that you can spread them around all those little garden pockets that don\u2019t get a lot of direct sunlight.\u00a0 In dry weather primroses will always benefit from supplemental water.\u00a0 At all other times they take care of themselves.<\/p>\n
You can buy the \u2018North Hill\u2019 strain of primroses from White Flower Farm, P.O. Box 50, Route 63, Litchfield, CT\u00a0 06759, (800)-420-2852, www.whiteflowerfarm.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.\u00a0 For other primrose selections, try Bluestone Perennials, 7211 Middle Ridge Rd., Madison, OH 44057, (800)-852-5243, www.bluestoneperennials.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the beginning of every season I take inventory of my garden to see what works and what doesn\u2019t, and where the \u201choles\u201d are in my current planting schemes.\u00a0 This task is easier to do in the spring, because the growth is less abundant.\u00a0 Every year I vow to plant more tulips and I generally … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[552,550,549,540,551],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","tag-easy-care-perennials","tag-primroses","tag-primula","tag-spring-gardening","tag-spring-perennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}