Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Primula => Topic started by: ruweiss on March 18, 2023, 08:57:25 PM
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Primula palinuri is a winter growing species from Southern Italy, growing
by the sea but really fully hardy in my conditions.
P. Joan Hughes and P. Rhenania are old cultivars but still vey rewarding
and free flowering
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Ruweiss,
Primula palinuri is new to me. Thanks for calling it to my attention. Do you know where I can get seed?
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Primula palinuri is probably not so attractive to most of the Primula growers. I don't know
any profesional seed growers who offer seeds of it. My plant is a gift of a late gardening
friend and I never tried to grow plants from seed.
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A friend of mine has them and I will try to get seeds. Since they seem to be quite hardy.
I got from Gabriela seeds of two quite small precious Primula.
The first small set is just on the way to flower.
Primula frondosa already opening.
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Even much smaller is Primula mistassinica. Thank you Gabrielea
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Axel,
Nice Primulas, thank you for showing.
I like espeially all the forms of Primula marginata and Primula x miniera, they don't
mind so much the higher summer temperatures in our garden.
ZZ sent me many years ago collected seeds from Mt. Cheiron in the Maritime Alps.
The resulting plants were quite small and very floriferous and I was very pleased
about them.
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Recently my husband and me had a get together with his old school friends in western Himalaya mountains. They choose that place since in their school days they had gone trekking in the Himalayas. It is still a lovely place and I had the opportunity to take a few pictures near the Jalori pass around 11k feet. These are the few Primulas we found on the way to Jalori pass trekking.
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one more
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last one
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Wonderful picture of the Primulas in their natural habitat. Thanks.
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Kris, it must have been a great experience to see them in the wild! I love the group picture of P.nana.
Thank you for taking the pictures. :)
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Kris - nothing comes close to seeing them, or other species, growing in the wild. Thanks for sharing the pictures, they are very beautiful.
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Nice to see and read, that there are still some Primula friends in this forum.
I especially enjoyed the pictures of the plants in the wild in spite of the fact,
that they are uncultvable in our climate.
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Nice to see and read, that there are still some Primula friends in this forum.
I especially enjoyed the pictures of the plants in the wild in spite of the fact,
that they are uncultvable in our climate.
Rudi,
I'm in zone 8b, and primulas do well for me, flowering from November to April.
I realize that the difference between -9.5C and -12.2C can be extreme for some plants.
I think that if you cover them with short lengths of row covers when hard frosts are expected you will be able to grow them. Try it with 1 or 2 plants before you spend a lot of money on them.
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Thank you gardeners for your admiration of the pictures.
These primulas grow on the north side between boulders covered with leaf litter. It is a very wet area with lots of rain. I read that the Primula denticulata also grows in the region but I think the season may be later. Finally I saw lots and lots of beautiful alpines growing along the road side but the time of the year I visited was early for the flowers to develop.
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I got tired of fiddling with individual pots, so I planted many of my Primula marginata forms outside in a raised bed. I cover the bed in winter to keep the plants fairly dry and to protect the farina on the leaves. Here are a few pictures. (Names are buried in the gravel.)
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Two more pictures plus a Primula spectabilis hybrid and a pot of Primula marginata
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Claire, thanks for showing us your beautiful plants, I especially like the last group of
P. marginata, they must be rather old. Attached is a photo of this species from
Monte Saccarello in the Ligurian Alps.
The other plants are hybrids.
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Claire, thanks for showing us your beautiful plants, .........
I agree! Very lovely display!
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I'm not sure who this little fellow is, but its flowers are bright and cheery. Grown from seed many years ago and I haven't killed it (yet); just a cutting that likes where I put it.
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Very impressing these precious beauties.
A late frost did smoother my small P. mistassinica. It did not affect the flowers only the leafs from last winter. I thought maybe too wet on my islands.
Now they are in full bloom and got new leafs. Maybe this is the natural course?
The second half batch sown in October last year is already germinating. I hope to get seeds.
Primula frondosa is much more floriferous and the rosette much bigger still quite small
Even buckets are suitable.
Some small Primula with Pinguicula longifolia var. longifolia
This Primula from the link is probably frondosa.
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I hope to grow a lot different little beauties on these floating islands. The variation with a small rock (tuff, lava, brick or others) seems to be most promising .
The maintenance is next to nothing.
I would even like to have a try on the so called uncultivable species on some of my islands. Probably i would have to adjust my winterroutine a bit.
Or even better, someone would like to try it in his garden or greenhouse with a hydroponic system. I would like to hear from it and of course put some brainpower into upturning problems if wanted.
The browning of the old leafs turned up this spring while we had some late frost, new leafs came up a few days later. The complete rosette is only 2 cm
two third of an inch.
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My thanks to the person who donated seed of Primula reidii var. williamsii to The Meconopsis Group seed exchange, circulated as 21/163. Ours was sown on 09/02/2022 and the single plant raised is in flower now. It has exquisite fragrance.
Is it possible to self-pollinate a single thrum plant and obtain seed? Does anyone nearby have a pin plant for matchmaking? Is there any chance of it being perennial?
Any helpful suggestions about perpetuating this plant would be gratefully received!
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Margaret,
"Primula reidii
Authors:
Botanical Description
The most popular Soldanelloides species in cultivation, but still not often seen. Leaves pale green, bullate, long-hairy, oblong, 3-12cm long by 2-3cm wide. Flowers ivory-white to mid blue, fragrant, broadly bell-shaped, 1.8-2.5cm across in umbels of three to ten on slender stems 6-15cm high. A very beautiful plant, short-lived, and best grown in a cool well-drained place outside, cloched in winter when it reduces to a small green speck. Kashmir to west Nepal on wet rocks and peaty ledges from 3300-4500m. Robust plants have been called v williamsii but are not obviously distinct." AGS
It appears to be a short-lived perennial. Many Primulas will self polinate so it certainly wouldn't hurt to try. If it doesn't self, you loose nothing. If it does self you can restart it.
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Marc
Thank you for quoting the reference for Primula reidii from the AGS encyclopaedia. John Richards has been busy keeping these updated and they are well worth reading, as is his book and Pam Eveleigh’s “Primula World” website. However, none of these sources says whether thrum eyed P. reidii var. williamsii will set seed if self-pollinated or is one of the self-sterile species. So it would be good to make contact with someone who has tried it.
Nothing to lose? Well I’m not so sure about that – I think the integrity of the flower would be lost. The style is so far down such a slender tube that it seems impossible to attempt any intervention without trashing the whole thing. I’ll maybe give it a go when the flower is past its best, but at the moment I think I’ll just enjoy it.
[attachimg=1][attachimg=2]
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I hope to grow a lot different little beauties on these floating islands. The variation with a small rock (tuff, lava, brick or others) seems to be most promising .
The maintenance is next to nothing.
I would even like to have a try on the so called uncultivable species on some of my islands. Probably i would have to adjust my winterroutine a bit.
Or even better, someone would like to try it in his garden or greenhouse with a hydroponic system. I would like to hear from it and of course put some brainpower into upturning problems if wanted.
The browning of the old leafs turned up this spring while we had some late frost, new leafs came up a few days later. The complete rosette is only 2 cm
two third of an inch.
Now Primula mistassinica looks much better. Seems to be normal. The next generation sown in last autumn is already coming up everywhere in the gravel.
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Does anyone has access to the original description for Primula juliae or preferably an English translation? Most reports say it was found by Julia Młokosiewicz, the daughter of Ludwig Młokosiewicz for whom the peony is named. However I was reading through Graham Stuart Thomas' The Rock Garden and its Plants and he says it was named for Julie, the daughter of Albert Regel of St Petersburg (presumably Johann Albert von Regel). I was curious to know which was correct.
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This Primula was grown as P.alpicola, but it is not.
Any guesses what it could be? There is no meal in flower stems, but leaves don't match P.japonica.
Could it be P.burmanica? Or maybe a hybrid with something?
It is flowering now, at the same time as P.alpicola.
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Does anyone has access to the original description for Primula juliae or preferably an English translation? Most reports say it was found by Julia Młokosiewicz, the daughter of Ludwig Młokosiewicz for whom the peony is named. However I was reading through Graham Stuart Thomas' The Rock Garden and its Plants and he says it was named for Julie, the daughter of Albert Regel of St Petersburg (presumably Johann Albert von Regel). I was curious to know which was correct.
Tried to find an English translation but found description of P. juliae, from this page ( and page 75) https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10526742#page/153/mode/1up that there is mention of the Młokosiewicz connection, so I reckon that's your answer!
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Ah, many thanks Maggi! I hadn't liked to imagine that Graham Stuart Thomas was mistaken...
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Primula mistassinica has quite variable leaf forms.
To the right is my most dentate variation yet. I wonder what the flower will look like, because I see some red at the leaf base. Most are just green.
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The same single plant of Primula reidii var. williamsii as I posted in May is now flowering again and appears to be setting seed too; if so, it must have been insect pollinated.
[attachimg=1][attachimg=2][attachimg=3][attachimg=4][attachimg=5]
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The same single plant of Primula reidii var. williamsii as I posted in May is now flowering again and appears to be setting seed too; if so, it must have been insect pollinated.
Those seedpods look very promising Margaret. What a lovely plant.
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The Plant Atlas 2020 for Britain and Ireland is a marvellous resource and one can spend many an hour exploring the distribution of native and non-native plants - for example, the native Primula scotica and the introduced Primula florindae
Primula scotica
https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.94q (https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.94q)
Primula florindae
https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.ngx (https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.ngx)
If you delete species epithet in top left-hand all known primula species recorded in Britain and Ireland will be listed and then you can select one to explore. Happy plant hunting.
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Primula florindae is quite a thug in our garden, I nearly banned it, but it is the only species that has done really well this year. It seems ironic this Himalayan primula has become established in the wild while so many of the less thuggish ones, like Primula reidii, are being lost from our gardens. Primula sikkimensis is much better behaved, but seems not to have become established.
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Margaret, P.reidii looks lovely!
Also here P.florindae does well. I have tried many times other candelabra primulas in the same bed, and all have died during winters, but P.florindae survives. It hasn't self seeded but it could be that there is no room for the seeds to germinate. P.florindae along with P.sieboldii are the best Primulas in my garden. It is not that our climate doesn't suit other Primulas, because I know that they can be grown here, it is something in my soil which they hate. (I have only one spot moist enough where I can grow candelabra Primulas or belled Primulas, and there isn't room there for others any more.)
This picture is from last week.
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Maybe lack of self-seeding is because most of those Primulas need open soil or mossy sites without much plant-cover for their primal stages.
Maybe try some bucket with a small floating island for the first year? Then you won´t have to worry about regular care and can plant them in autumn or spring.
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Thanks but getting them to over winter is the biggest problem, so I have decided to grow only plants which do well (or at least do reasonably well) in my garden. :)
There are so many plants, and also colour variations of plants which do well, and new plants to try, so I don't want to keep hitting my head to the wall with plants I know don't do well in my condition and soil. :)
You are right about self-seeding needing open soil, and that is probably why I don't have P.florindae self-seeding.
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Margaret, P.reidii looks lovely!
Thanks, Leena. The three later flowers do not appear to have been pollinated, but the original one is developing well, so it may produce fertile seed. P. reidii was listed in the last (76th) SRGC seed exchange, so somebody should be congratulated for succeeding with it. Sadly I know of no other soldanelloides section species available in cultivation, though I hope Primula reidii var. reidii, P. soldanelloides, P. wigramiana and P. wollastonii still survive somewhere.
This year on our travels we saw the last of these in Nepal, but only just coming into flower, so this photo is from a previous trip.
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My thanks to the person who donated seed of Primula reidii var. williamsii to The Meconopsis Group seed exchange, circulated as 21/163. Ours was sown on 09/02/2022 and the single plant raised is in flower now. It has exquisite fragrance.
Is it possible to self-pollinate a single thrum plant and obtain seed? Does anyone nearby have a pin plant for matchmaking? Is there any chance of it being perennial?
Any helpful suggestions about perpetuating this plant would be gratefully received!
Our single Primula reidii var. williamsii set seed which has now germinated and the original plant is in flower again; so it is self-fertile and perennial
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What a treat! Lovely violet tinge on the flower's edge.
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What a treat! Lovely violet tinge on the flower's edge.
These and most of the ones in cultivation are var. williamsii from Nepal rather than the pure white ones we saw in Himachal
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I just wish we could add scent to these posts!!