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Diane Whitehead (Diane_whitehead)
Member
Username: Diane_whitehead
Post Number: 49
Registered: 2-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006 - 3:02 am: |    |
Yesterday several of us went around to various gardens
to check on plants of the original Cowichan polyanthus.
We wanted to see if everyone who claimed to have
the original really did. We decided that they did,
though the plants differed a bit - ones growing in the
shade had few flowers, and ones regularly fertilized
were more robust. The fact that the plant does not
set seed naturally has allowed this cultivar to remain
true. It was discovered as a seedling in the Cowichan
Valley of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada,
an agricultural area with many ex-Brits and therefore
an area full of gardeners. The originator also had a
fox-coloured plant, but it was a weaker grower
and we have not seen one lately.
Diane Whitehead Victoria B.C. Canada (60 km
from Cowichan) |
Paul Tyerman (Tyerman)
Senior Member ( posting super hero)
Username: Tyerman
Post Number: 805
Registered: 10-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 12:01 pm: | |
Diane,
Here in Australia we definitely have varieties called "Cowichan Red" and "Cowichan Blue" which are quite distinct in their differences to many of the normal polyanthus types. Do you have any other pics of the true "Cowichan" types? Are they always just the colour you have posted?
Paul T. Canberra, Australia. |
Diane Whitehead (Diane_whitehead)
Intermediate Member
Username: Diane_whitehead
Post Number: 52
Registered: 2-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 5:20 pm: | |
My picture is of the original plant from which all
the others have been bred.
In the 1930s, Mr. Neel of Cowichan Station grew
two "eyeless" primroses from seed he imported
from England, probably from Thompson and Morgan.
He passed a division to his neighbour Major Knocker and the
plant continued for a while as a "passalong".
Then it started being sold by a nearby nursery
under the name "Cowichan Primula". Controversy
raged in the Cowichan Valley - "sides were taken
and one had to be sure that certain people were not
invited to the same dinner parties. It just was not
done to take a neighbour's gift and turn it into a
money-making proposition, and under a new name."
Florence Bellis, who started Barnhaven in Oregon, bought a
plant and used its pollen to develop a strain of eyeless
primroses which were introduced in 1949. Her plant lived
for only a year. The Barnhaven website says it had been
weakened by excessive division for commercial purposes.
However, the original clone is still healthy after about 75
years, and growing in a number of gardens.
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Paul Tyerman (Tyerman)
Senior Member ( posting super hero)
Username: Tyerman
Post Number: 824
Registered: 10-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 9:03 pm: | |
Diane,
Thanks for the info. I didn't realise that Barnhaven were "eyeless" primroses. I grow a couple of "Barnhaven Seedlings" which are rather nice, although they are a single colour with a yellow centre, which I guess makes them "eyed" rather than "eyeless" doesn't it? LOL
Always nice to find out histories, particularly of plants you have in your own garden. Thanks again!
Paul T. Canberra, Australia. |
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Primula