Primula 2013

[David Nicholson]

A couple in flower this week.

Primula marginata 'Drake's Blue'. This one a kind gift from LucG some years ago now and it's never looked better.

Primula 'Eden Blue Star'. This is actually a border Auricula but it doesn't seem to bulk up and would be lost in the garden. There is a possibility that offsets of Primula 'Blue Wave' I've sent out could turn out to Eden Blue Star. The two look exactly the same in leaf and my plant was wrongly labelled as Blue Wave. If this happens to you do please let me know and I'll correct it for you as soon as I have more offsets available.

[Richard Williams]

A few photos of some of my primulas growing in a polytunnel. This year everything is very late especially the allionii but seem to be flowering well. Living about 8 miles from the sea it's not ideal for allioniii growing around here and some varieties have turned up their toes over the winter which tends to be damp and mild. The marginatas just seem to get on with it and now they are growing in larger pots are looking to put on a good show this year.

[David Nicholson]

That is some collection Richard, lovely.

Here's one from the garden, Primula vulgaris 'Maisie Michael', not very easy to photograph and is a much deeper/richer creamy-yellow than it shows on the image, beautiful foliage too. Sometimes seen as 'Maisey Michael. I have read that it is a selected seedling from P. 'Guinevere' raised by that expert in Primroses, Joe Kennedy from Co. Antrim. There is an interesting article on Kennedy Primroses by Liam Byrne in the Ulster AGS Group Newsletter, see page 20 here:-  http://www.alpinegardensociety.ie/sources/AGS%20Newsletter%2058%20Summer%202012.pdf

[David Nicholson]

A few from the greenhouse today:-

Primula x pubescens 'Henry Hall'
P. 'Lindum Wedgewood'

[David Nicholson]

Primula 'Lindum 'Malcolms Mate'

[David Nicholson]

I was lucky enough to scrounge a few offsets last year from a local grower and have grown them on and these will provide the base for building up my collection again:-

Primula allionii 'Sapphire'
P. allionii 'Jackie Richards'
P. allionii 'Stradbrook Variegated'
P. 'Broadwell Milkmaid'

[Maggi Young]

Here's one from the garden, Primula vulgaris 'Maisie Michael', not very easy to photograph and is a much deeper/richer creamy-yellow than it shows on the image, beautiful foliage too. Sometimes seen as 'Maisey Michael. I have read that it is a selected seedling from P. 'Guinevere' raised by that expert in Primroses, Joe Kennedy from Co. Antrim. There is an interesting article on Kennedy Primroses by Liam Byrne in the Ulster AGS Group Newsletter, see page 20 here:-  http://www.alpinegardensociety.ie/sources/AGS%20Newsletter%2058%20Summer%202012.pdf

The late Maisie Michael was one of the sweetest people it has ever been my good fortune to meet.
How well I remember the "old days" when Maisie was one  the crowd who came across each year for the SRGC Discussion weekend. Happy Days!

Members in the USA may be interested to learn that Mr Kennedy's collaboration with Patrick Fitzgerald means that these plants are now available in the USA ...... see here:

http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/announcing-kennedy-irish-primrose.html

[David Nicholson]

The late Maisie Michael was one of the sweetest people it has ever been my good fortune to meet.
How well I remember the "old days" when Maisie was one  the crowd who came across each year for the SRGC Discussion weekend. Happy Days!

I think I read that Maisie died 25 years ago now.

[Maggi Young]

I think I read that Maisie died 25 years ago now.

No - surely not? Can it really be so long ago?

[David Nicholson]

No - surely not? Can it really be so long ago?

Yes, page 15 on the link I posted earlier. You must have been in pigtails then Maggi?

[Maggi Young]

Yes, page 15 on the link I posted earlier. You must have been in pigtails then Maggi?

So it is- right above a photo of Harold McBride and Ray Drew .  Mercy -  25 years. 

Not pigtails, David, I  must still have been in a pram.......

[Richard Williams]

David
Some nice Lindum ones there especially Malcolms Mate and Stradbrook variegated is a new one on me. Has the latter variegated Leaves or Flowers?
On a more general note anyone any suggestions how I can get my hands on Marginata Casterino? it was last listed on the RHS plantfinder in 2006. I've around 40 varieties of marginata and another dozen hybrids of marginataesque bloodlines but Casterino has so far evaded my searching.
Photos attached are Marginata Herb Dixon & Ivy Agee and a seedling from an x marginata lemon meringue from the Northern NAPS seed exchange . It's kept the marginata type of leaf but a nice yellow colour and I do like yellow primula hybrids.

[David Nicholson]

David
Some nice Lindum ones there especially Malcolms Mate and Stradbrook variegated is a new one on me. Has the latter variegated Leaves or Flowers?
On a more general note anyone any suggestions how I can get my hands on Marginata Casterino? it was last listed on the RHS plantfinder in 2006. I've around 40 varieties of marginata and another dozen hybrids of marginataesque bloodlines but Casterino has so far evaded my searching.
Photos attached are Marginata Herb Dixon & Ivy Agee and a seedling from an x marginata lemon meringue from the Northern NAPS seed exchange . It's kept the marginata type of leaf but a nice yellow colour and I do like yellow primula hybrids.

Richard, the leaf margins of Stradbrook Variegated have a distinct creamy/yellow colour.

I had marginata 'Casterino' in my previous Primula collection which I disposed of some years ago and I think it came as a gift from a European forumist so it may well be available at one or other of the European nurseries, I'll do a bit of research and let you know.

Your little yellow seedling is a good looker. If you are interested in yellow hybrids, and I am, I wonder if you have read about the breeding work David Philbey has been doing for many years now. You might be interested in these two Links:-
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/underglass/Primulas+Everywhere/244/
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2011May261306444476IRGMay2011.pdf

If you produce a Sales List I would welcome a copy please?


 

[Lesley Cox]

He has to Marianne, no-one else will talk to him

You're saying David, that they answer back?

[Lesley Cox]

Members in the USA may be interested to learn that Mr Kennedy's collaboration with Patrick Fitzgerald means that these plants are now available in the USA ...... see here:

http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/announcing-kennedy-irish-primrose.html

I just went to your link David and read right through that amazing newsletter. A fantastic effort for what is, after all, a local group. Ours, at best gives a few dates and talk reminders, the occasional changed email address. We've had discussion recently about the fact that we've lost so many members in recent years, sometimes through death but more, from out-of-town people losing interest in the meetings they often or usually can't attend and we've had major problems too with recent seedlists, so what do we do to keep the interest of these members? A much enhanced newsletter would be one suggestion and though we wouldn't, I think, strive to emulate the Irish one, we could get some good ideas from theirs. So I'll be taking that to the next committee meeting I can attend, in June.

I wish we could get seed of these beautiful Irish primroses, since we can't get the plants. So many of us now are feeling quite depressed about the total lack of new material available to dedicated gardeners.