Primrose
Overview:
The primrose, also known as Primula, is a charming flower with button-like blooms and with flowers that come in soft pastels to the most vibrant colors. These blossoms typically come in shades of yellow, white, pink, apricot, and purple, often with a contrasting eye at the center.
Native to Western Europe, the English primrose thrives in cooler temperatures and typically grows in meadows and woodlands in their natural habitat. Primrose stays nice and compact, making it a great addition to any container garden or indoor window garden. We tuck them into bulb gardens as well for a perfect early spring medley.
Seed starting:
Since Primrose is like a cool period, we typically do not start these seeds ourselves and purchase them in plugs. If you wish to start them yourself, you can put a seed packet in the fridge three weeks before planting, or sow the seeds in your seed starting trays, wrap in cellophane, and place the tray in the fridge for three weeks. remove the tray and place it under the lights.
When to plant outside:
We typically start planting primrose in the garden in late October or early November when temperatures are consistently below 85 degrees. Since we receive them as tiny plugs, we typically transplant them right into out terra-cotta pots at this time, or into 2.5" containers.
Since these flowers do not like it hot, we keep them on the east side of our house where they receive 4-6 hours of morning sun. They can tolerate more sun as temperatures drop.
Primroses can bloom from January through march. We like to plant different varieties for the best staggered bloom periods.
Spacing:
Since we are treating these as annuals in our growing zone, we can plant them snugly. 3-4" apart. Primrose does not get very big, so we put 3-4 plugs in each 6.5" container for maximum impact. If you are planting them in the ground to perennialize in colder zones, you can space them about 6" apart.
sun:
Part to full sun for 4-6+ hours. They can take full sun in the winter months, but ideally 4-6 hours of morning sun.
Pinching:
Not needed
Fertilizer:
Fertilize plants consistently for best results. We like to use a water soluble fertilizer weekly in all of our containers. Check out our favorite fertilizers HERE
Favorite varieties:
We always look for varieties that do not need cold periods aka ‘Vernalization’. One of go-to’s are a series called ‘Danessa’
Danessa Pink rose eye above
Danessa Apricot Rose eye below
We think the mix of the two is a lovely combination.
This is what the plants will look like before they bloom, these photos were taken in December.
Same bench in full bloom, photo taken around Valentines Day.
Primrose Paradiso (Pictured below) was a lovely addition to our spring garden. We trialed them last season and bloomed after the Danessa sereies. Growing both is a great way to extend the primrose blooming season
We paired them with viola marina 'Blue' (at the bottom of the bench) along with tulip 'foxtrot' and 'Dallas'. They bloomed for us from late Febuary through march. Their double champagne blooms were the perfect pastel addition to our cottage container garden.
We are experimenting this year with growing few more kinds of primroses, which we are so excited to share when the are in bloom! These flowers are truly stunning, and spring isn’t complete with out them. We love mixing them with spring bulbs like muscari, tulips and hyacinths. We like to add in some alyssum and violas too for a magical spring container.
