ALIAS PRIMROSE

Hardy Primroses are showy plants which fit in well with any Spring bedding design. The small flowers are graceful and dainty and the varieties can be so chosen that they will be in bloom from April for a month. Primroses grow from 6 inches to 18 inches high and have light green, hairy leaves. The colors of the hardy sorts range from white to the darkest crimson and yellow. Some of the varieties are double, and others present this appearance because the petals are wavy and crinkled.

How to Grow and Care for Cape Primrose (Streptocarpus) Streptocarpus spp.

National Auricula and Primrose Society (NAPS) Northern Section

2018 has been a very good year for Primroses and Primula. The cool, wet spring and occasional bursts of sunshine have played their part.

‘Kinlough Beauty’ is an exceptionally hardy Primrose from the Primula family. . To maintain vigour divide ‘Kinlough Beauty’ every couple of years or so after blooming. This is when your free plants arise. I have just got nine new healthy plants from one clump. Other primroses can be divided in a similar manner.

The Evening Primrose is one of my favourite, limeish yellow, summer, biennial flowers.

This is cutleaf evening primrose. This weed germinates and starts appearing in the fall and grows through the winter and spring until the weather gets hot.

Cut leaf evening primrose (Oenothera laciniata) is a native, biannual plant. It forms a rosette during its first year of growth and produces yellow flowers on low spreading stems in its second year. The pretty, yellow flowers open in the evening and close during bright, sunny conditions Flowering will last for over a month, and sphinx moths and native bees pollinate the flowers. Unfortunately, the plant also hosts the tarnished plant bug, a piercing, sucking insect that feeds on vegetable and ornamental herbaceous plants.

This Japanese woodlander spreads to create thick mats of scalloped, blue-green, fuzzy foliage, from which erupt (and I think that’s exactly the word) orchid-pink flowers in early spring on 6- or 8-inch stems. It is never shy, and given part shade and a humusy soil it will romp…but in the nicest way.Arrowhead Alpines Nursery sometimes sells it. Once you’ve got it, there will be plenty for a lifetime (and friends). I’ve read a

‘THANK YOU,’ SAY THE BIRDS, “these are delicious.” And they are delicious to look at, too–especially as fall comes on, with all the giant heads of bird-attracting purple fruit and in some cases (such as Aralia spinosa, above) incredible fall foliage color, too. Do you grow any aralias (sometimes called spikenards) in your garden yet? Some of my favorites you may wish to consider adopting, too:Aralia spinosa, the devil’s walking stick (a small suckering tree, above); Aralia cordata, a giant herbaceous perennial, and Aralia racemosa, a native Eastern perennial, also size-XL; Aralia elata, especially the variegated forms.

Elizabeth Lawson is a naturalist and writer from Ithaca, NY, with a doctorate in botany. She’s also the new president of the American Primrose Society.The name Primula translates as “little first one,” and they are a welcome sight of spring. She introduced me to the best primulas for our gardens today, and some primrose legend and lore. Plus: Enter to win the

As a born and raised Missourian, any plant with my home state in the name immediately earns my endearment.But even for folks raised outside of the Show Me State,