Primula carniolica

[David Nicholson]

We had been having some discussion on the Primula-February to April 2008 Thread which I will continue here:-

Here are a couple of pics of my pretty poor specimen, with the flower way past its best, of Primula carniolica taken today.

Followed by a picture of Michael Campbell's plant which he originally posted a couple of days ago, and following this a pic I have pinched from Google Images and I hope I have not offended the photographer.

In John Richard's book 'Primula' he gives the following description 'Differs from P. latifolia and P. marginata by lacking a woody stem, by the entire, hooded, rather pale green leaves which lack meal or (usually) hairs, and the pink flowers (rarely white), which are held one-sidededly as in P. latifolia, but have a mealy ring on the throat as in P. marginata. A much taller plant than P. albenensis, and with non-mealy leaves'

Do Michael and I have P. carniolica? Is the Google Images pic P. carniolica? What do others think?
 

[johanneshoeller]

Hi David,
I think the last photo shows us a true carniolica although we cannot see the leaves. The leaves look like those of the first 2 photos.
I visited the locations several times and found many hybrids with auricula too.
See this dscription: The flower has glittering bright green basal leaves, which are smooth and bare and are not speckled with a farinose coating. The soft, red-violet flowers are in clusters with a sprinkling of white dust at the mouth.
I hope I will see a flowering P. carniolica in my garden the next days. I know a true carniloica is very difficult to grow and most seedlings in a garden with auricula (maybe allionii and others) will not be true!

An older photo of my true plant - sorry only flowers

[David Nicholson]

Hans, the flower on your plant seems to match very well the description that John Richards gives. Michael's plant seems closer to yours than mine does. Michael was there a trace of meal on the throats of your flowers?

[Michael J Campbell]

Michael was there a trace of meal on the throats of your flowers?

David, there is a very slight trace of meal but you would have to look closely to spot it. My plant does not have a white eye like the one in the pic above, so probably is a hyb.

[art600]

David

Your plant does not look at all healthy - virus?   

[Lvandelft]

David
Your plant does not look at all healthy - virus?   

Arthur, I presume you didn't read the Primula Pages 6 to 7?
David is just recovering and now you start teasing him again...

[David Nicholson]

Arthur, don't do this to me! I don't think it's virus, thanks to our own Dutch Master's diagnosis I was too generous with Dolomite Lime in my potting mix last year. Having said that I have had one or two goes at growing Primula carniolica (if that is what my plant is? ) before with little success. At least my current pretty poor speciman looks as though it will last until I re-pot in September. Just you lot wait, in 2009 it will be magnificant-whatever it is!!

[Lesley Cox]

I wonder if we sometimes are a bit paranoid about the "v" word when in at least some cases, it's a matter of bad or too little or too much nutrition (as discussed above). I do know that ALL the primulas in the Auricula group are what my mother used delicately to call "gross feeders" so perhaps sometimes we just need to be more caring of their feeding habits. No-one looking at me for instance (or our favourite lady) would say "she has virus."

[Maggi Young]

No-one looking at me for instance (or our favourite lady) would say "she has virus."

Well, not and live, Lesley! Besides, those ladies never wear stripes, do they??

[johanneshoeller]

The leaves of P. carniolica

[David Nicholson]

Leaves don't look too different from those of my plant and Michael's plant Hans-what do you think?

[johanneshoeller]

Yes the leaves look like carniolica.
2 pics of my hybrid of carniolica (x auricula x?) - the pics are taken in sun and shaddow. The pot was too dry and we had a lot of snow and then +20°C, so the flowers look very abnormal.

[David Nicholson]

When I started this thread my Primula carniolica looked a pretty poor specimen, well it has improved a lot now. Here are a couple of pics.