Primula-February to April 2008

[Diane Clement]

Is it Mount Molyneux, just outside Wolverhampton?

Very very close   

[ranunculus]

Are we talking further east, steeper and awash with Paederota bonarota?  Thought so....it's the rock garden at Ashwood's Nursery!

[Lesley Cox]

I thought it was misty trees. Diane you still need a closer up avatar. How about you and Martin R swapping pics? I mean you take one of him and he takes one of you. Both in close up without dark glasses.

[mark smyth]

I hate faceless avatars

[David Nicholson]

Wow David,

I envy your soil, looks great! ... Love wild primulas too, they are kind of a welcomed weed in our garden, just as Helleborus viridis or Aquilegia vulgaris, which is now in flower.

It's quite a rich soil Jose, but very, very stoney. I've dug out tons of the stuff in the 20 years we have been here. Luckily it is fairly neutral too so I can have a go at most stuff.

[David Nicholson]

My sieboldii have seeded about and flowering now on tiny stems. David if you want one or two they're yours

Thanks for the offer Mark but I wont take you up on it, at the moment. One of my tasks for this Summer is to build a moist peaty bed which might be better for sieboldii, and indeed for vialli which also dies on me with great regularity-then I might take you up if the offer is still open. Another of my tasks is to find a site on which to build said moist peaty bed

[Martinr]

Lesley, there's been a pretty scary close up of me recently on the forum, just not identified as such. Trust me, I was better looking, and had more hair, when I was young

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great plants everyone !!
May I add a modest contribution in this Primula Walhalla ?

Here's my

Primula marginata "Drake's blue" - growing in a trough.

[Lesley Cox]

Trust me, I was better looking, and had more hair, when I was young

Well I guess that's true of most of us. Certainly I was better looking and now, every time I brush my hair it seems that the brush only need some pointed ears and a tail attached, to look like someone's cat!

[mark smyth]

I never knew there were so many P. marginatas available. We just see the same old varieties for sale here

[David Nicholson]

Nice marginata Luc. Over here it is sold as 'Drake's Form'

[David Nicholson]

I never knew there were so many P. marginatas available. We just see the same old varieties for sale here

Susan Tindall has at least four that are difficult, if not impossible, to find over here.

[Paul T]

I'm still trying to get my head around the idea of weed Primulas.  You all should be ashamed of yourselves for even THINKING such a thing.  I wish they'd grow that easily for me.  I tell you, if David was hoeing that one out and I was able to, I'd take it!!  And any of the others he didn't want as well, and any others that any of the rest of your didn't want too!!  You're all wrong in the head!! 

David,

Thanks for the pictures of your spreading Primula menace!    Yes, first (and now second) day went well at work, although muscles I don't recall ever having before are aching!!    I've worked out that I'm thankful I started on a Wednesday, because it means that after tomorrow I get two days off to try to recover a bit.  Imagine 5 days of this to start!! 

Mark,

Sorry, but still no picture of me.  I've said before, and I'll say again, Elfinraer is MUCH prettier than me. 

[annew]

I have 2 primulas in a trough which have lost labels, can someone identify them for me? The first I think might be Primula warshenewskiana, and I thought I did have P. clarkei, so maybe that's the second one.
The third I know, and am very fond of - 'Lady Greer', it's so small and delicate. The fourth I bought last year, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, but the stems elongate, then it has these great frilly flowers on the end  it's Primula 'Francisca'

[David Nicholson]

More pics of some more of my 'weeds'. I lifted these yesterday, from a bed I use for growing Rhubarb not very successfully (I have an insatiable desire for Rhubarb crumble or just plain stewed Rhubarb but my Rhubarb growing skills are such that each time we visit my brother in Yorkshire we have to bring back masses of it for the freezer). In that bed I originally planted just two Primulas, the one shown in the first pic and one P. denticulata, all the ones shown in the other pics are self seeders and, apart from the couple just mentioned, are some yards away from any other Primulas. Although they are a little past their best they made a nice addition to a new area I am developing. Sorry Diane if these turn your stomach!