I’m not sure why these pictures seemed suitable for a solstice celebration. Perhaps it’s the mix of sunlight and shade. Perhaps the primulas’ centres remind me of the sun. Continue reading “Candelabra Primulas For The Summer Solstice”
RHS Harlow Carr: Candelabra Primulas, Blue Poppies And Other Treasures
Harlow Carr is no longer the Royal Horticulture Society’s only northern garden, and not the biggest, but has the benefit of an extra 70 years or so of continuous cultivation. Highlights for me include wonderful collections of primula and meconopsis, typically in flower around mid June to early July. The collections mingle in naturalistic drifts, their bold colours sparkling like jewels in their stream-side setting. Continue reading “RHS Harlow Carr: Candelabra Primulas, Blue Poppies And Other Treasures”
Variations on a Theme: Primrose, Cowslip or Oxlip?
The third in my series of easily confused plants features some of the UK’s favourite spring wild flowers with a long heritage of lore.
While our native species of primula are well-loved, they are not as familiar and useful as they once were. Farmers are too busy to rub primroses on their cows’ udders on May Day to encourage milk. Most people who grow primroses near their doorway have forgotten the idea that they encourage faeries to bless the household. People no longer make tisty tosties from cowslip flower heads tied into balls, stems inwards, and hang them from sticks in their dozens to tell fortunes or wave in celebration. Few people have recently tasted cowslip wine. Cowslips are not common enough, and like all UK wild flowers, they are now protected.
But these wild flowers have such a dainty, delicate look, no matter how vigorously they grow, that they are rarely dismissed as weeds. Continue reading “Variations on a Theme: Primrose, Cowslip or Oxlip?”
Pink Primrose
I was struck by the way this hybrid primrose gradually changes from almost the standard pale yellow to pink, the flowers becoming darker as they age. Each petal is heart-shaped with a bright yellow splash, which put together, forms a starry centre. Continue reading “Pink Primrose”
Two Alpines: Forms of Primula allionii
Auricula Gallery from the Northern Section’s Cheadle Show 2019
After writing my last post it occurred to me that I might have the chance to realise my long-held ambition and go to an auricula show. It was a timely thought: the N.A.P.S.’s Northern Section’s auricula show was held at Kingsway School in Cheadle on Saturday. Visitors were ‘warmly welcomed’ from 2 o’clock onwards, so I headed on down. Bargain hunters may like to note there was no admission fee and a whole table of cakes were being offered at the knockdown price of £1 per slice.
In the hall, people were peering at rows of circus plants with button shaped flowers in bright, bold colours decorated with rings, stripes, powder, and fancy edges.
Continue reading “Auricula Gallery from the Northern Section’s Cheadle Show 2019”
Primula Auricula ‘Old Irish Scented’
There’s something alluring to me about auricula primulas, the racing pigs of the plant world. 19th century Lancashire working men collected these little darlings to bond over, lavish care upon, and to compete with against each other for the grand prize of a copper kettle. Today’s society helps give us an impression of how things were, back then: Continue reading “Primula Auricula ‘Old Irish Scented’”
Susan Rushton 