Primrose for a lazy gardener

Primrose plants are ideally suited to the concept of a "lazy" garden. They are unpretentious, undemanding to care, can settle even where, it would seem, primroses do not belong at all. Equally beautiful leaves and flowering are a nice bonus for plants that you can "plant and forget." True, it is possible to say that they grow on their own, not about all primulas, but their fragility imposes its limitations. But there are many types that allow you to create beautiful flowering accents, simplifying the maintenance of the garden as a whole.

Description of Primrose

Rams, keys, primroses - do not name like charming primrose, because of this they will not lose their charm or beauty. Plants, the origin of which is surrounded by traditions and stories, never go out of style. And the point is not that primrose is one of the first to appear on the garden scene, delighting with a wide variety of colors in late April and early May, even in regions with severe winters. The primrose is strikingly diverse, but at the same time demonstrates an amazing community in nature.

Of the more than six hundred species of primrose, which are found on almost all continents and in different climatic zones, only about six dozen species of primrose are recognized as ornamental plants. But species plants today are becoming increasingly rare: they are being squeezed out of the "market" by various hybrids and varieties, often even of unknown origin, which can boast of amazing flowering characteristics and an improved shape of individual flowers and inflorescences.

If you are looking for plants that would help you create a garden that requires minimal care, then you need to pay attention first of all not to fashionable varieties, but to species primroses - the most hardy, undemanding and content with rare care.

All primroses are so special that they are very easy to distinguish even in a large collection of species in the flower garden. But nevertheless, garden primroses have much more in common.

Firstly, primrose leaves almost always stand out against any background. They may vary in shape, but they are necessarily collected in a basal rosette, rich green, lighter than most perennials and unique velvety.

Secondly, flowers collected in inflorescences of various shapes are also easily recognizable by the texture of the petals and dazzlingly bright colors with an “eye”.

16 types of primroses that you should pay attention to when creating a garden without hassle

Primrose ordinary (Primula vulgaris) Is a plant whose appearance is familiar to most gardeners. Oval, velvety, bright leaves up to 25 cm long are collected in neat rosettes and partially preserved for the winter. Peduncles up to 20 cm tall are crowned with single flowers with a diameter of up to 4 cm. Along with simple light yellow or white with a purple spot, terry, semi-double and simple variegated varieties are found. In favorable weather, this species blooms very abundantly, almost blocking the foliage with flowers, and is capable of blooming again.

Primrose high (Primula elatior) - one of the most attractive and unpretentious primroses with an umbrella-shaped inflorescence. It is no coincidence that she became a favorite of landscape gardens and natural "wild" plantings: being the most drought-resistant and amazingly hardy, high primrose shows an enviable constancy. Its leaves are elongated-oval, up to 20 cm in length, collected in a beautiful outlet. Peduncles up to 35 cm high are crowned with a two-centimeter fragrant flower, inclined to its side, decorated with a bright light or dark spot.

Primrose pink (Primula rosea) Is another umbrella-colored star that goes on stage immediately after the earliest primulas in the first half of May. This is a moisture-loving species that can adapt to conditions not only on the banks of ponds or streams. Delicate, with dazzling pink flowers, a little over 1 cm in diameter, this primrose conquers with its almost invisible at the beginning of flowering and gradually growing peduncles, whose length reaches 15 cm by the end of flowering. Only after flowering does the leaf rosette grow intensively, surprising with elongated oval leaves that change color from bronze to pale green.

Spring primrose (Primula veris) not inferior in beauty to the umbrellas of inflorescences to any competitor. This is not the most catchy, but the least primitive species is the least demanding of the conditions of detention. Its main advantage is considered to be very early flowering, which begins literally after the snow melts. The leaves are ovoid, spectacular, wrinkled, up to 20 cm long. The flowers are unusual, with an elongated light tube and heart-shaped petals of the corolla, collected in one-sided brush inflorescences. The palette of colors includes unique shades of cream and pink tones. This plant is also a valuable medicinal and even edible crop (its leaves can be added to salads).

Primrose ear (Primula auricula), also known simply as an auricle, like all hybrids obtained on its basis - a beautiful view with dark evergreen oval leaves up to 20 cm long and flowers up to 3 cm, famous for the variety of color varieties: as a rule, circles of three- four different colors, and the classic yellow eye is combined with all possible bright shades of the color spectrum. Despite the fact that her flowers are also collected in umbrellas, from a distance they seem to be soaring flowering spheres. This primrose blooms in early or mid-May.

Primrose Alpine (Primula alpicola) Is one of the most beautiful primroses with racemose inflorescences. Thick basal rosettes of oval, up to 10 cm long leaves with a fine-toothed edge are transformed when the plant produces half-meter peduncles with fragrant flowers up to 4 cm in diameter. The flowers are painted with a bright eye on a purple, light yellow or lilac corolla. This plant is very pleasantly surprised by its sweet, honey aroma.

Primrose Sikkim (Primula sikkimensis) also forms inflorescence brushes. It blooms only in the middle of summer, at the end of June and beginning of July, offering to add its touching, but bright accents to the powerful flowering of perennials and the beginning flowering of roses. The plant is not pubescent, which is a rarity for primroses, it seems elegant in everything: both for its scapular-lanceolate, collected in graceful fountain-shaped high rosettes, leaves, and thirty-centimeter peduncles, on the top of which there are several tiers of umbrellas hanging drooping light yellow bells flowers.

Primrose Florinda (Primula florindae) - a spectacular bell primrose with a lace appearance, it is considered a late-flowering species, last blooming, but this statement is not entirely true: florinda has been blooming since mid-June, but the last flowers remain on it in August. Unlike Sikkim primrose, the plant is covered with powdery yellow coating. Peduncles higher than 1 m are crowned with tiered umbrellas from small bright yellow, fragrant bell-shaped flowers. The leaves are very large, bright, look very unusual.

Primrose capitate (Primula capitata) - one of the plants, the appearance of which is easy to guess by name. Bell flowers of lilac tone are collected in unusual flattened balls of inflorescences, and a powdery coating covering the entire plant only emphasizes the texture of long leaves, peduncles and buds.

Fine-tooth primrose (Primula denticulata) will appeal to fans of capitate primrose. Her inflorescence-like blobs look great in mixed, beautifully flowering compositions of flower beds, flower beds, landscape groups, and the leaves from a compact rosette after flowering grow to 40 cm in length, surprisingly effectively contrast with their neighbors. But still, the most beautiful thing in the plant is not dazzlingly bright leaves, but dense balls of purple, lilac or white inflorescences, which at first almost lie on the ground, and then gradually rise to a height of 25 cm on growing peduncles.

Primrose bull (Primula bulleyana) - one of the most unusual types of primroses. This is a candelabrum primrose with very large leaves, reaching 40 cm in length, and with almost the same width, dying for the winter. Yellow-orange flowers with a diameter of about 2 cm are collected in tiered inflorescences and rise to a half-meter height. This bright primrose blooms in June-July, often growing as a biennial, replaced by self-sowing.

Primula Viale (Primula vialii), or primrose orchid begins to bloom in June-July. But not a summer bloom is so attractive in this plant, but its extraordinary appearance. Actually, this primrose is not at all similar to primrose. In the middle lane, lanceolate leaves with a light blue color appear only at the end of May, and the flowering is not so massive, but even in our country the plant perfectly reveals its beauty. Unusual inflorescences-sultans up to 7 cm high with red buds and lilac flowers below resemble luxurious pyramids. This species is considered problematic in regions with harsh winters, but when planting tall herbaceous perennials in the company and while maintaining self-seeding to replace plants, this exotic primrose will fit into the concept of a “lazy” garden even better than most “ours” primrose.

Japanese primrose (Primula japonica) can also boast of non-standard flowering. This species blooms only in June, as if picking up a wave of flowering May species. The leaves of the plant are large, lanceolate-oval, collected in a beautiful, but somewhat sloppy rosette. But the candelabra of its inflorescences are dazzling. Ring-shaped whorls of raspberry or white flowers with a diameter of about 2 cm tirelessly bloom on half-meter peduncles.

Primula Voronova (Primula woronowii) blooms as early as spring primrose, it is worth to melt the last snowdrifts. Low and very tender, it surprises with light lilac petals turning pale to the center and a bright yellow eye, wrinkled and sloppy leaves that seem especially tender in spring.

Primrose Julia (Primula juliae) - one of the early flowering species, traditionally emerging on the garden scene in late April, a little later primrose spring and Voronov. But she became famous, first of all, for her unpretentiousness and shade tolerance. The leaves are ovoid, light, sitting in rosettes on fairly long petioles. The flowers seem large and spectacular, up to 3 cm in diameter, they show off a deep notch on the petals and a sufficiently long tube. This primrose blooms before the leaves bloom, often capable of weak re-bloom. The palette of colors ranges from violet and purple to white, red, yellow of all possible shades.

Powdery primrose (Primula farinosa) will please flowering in late spring. This primrose does not have such large leaves, only up to 5 cm in length, but they are collected in very dense rosettes and covered with an intense, whitish powdery coating. Peduncles up to 20 cm tall with bright pink-lilac flowers with a white eye in loose inflorescences seem weightless. This species will pleasantly surprise you not only with its character, but also with the preservation of leaves until winter and even until spring under the snow. But this primrose is very short-lived.

The relentless parade of unpretentious primroses in the garden

Even among only these unpretentious favorites among primroses, you can create a whole relay race of continuous flowering, which will cover the entire period of active vegetation from April to the end of summer. The primrose parade is opened by spring primrose, by the end of April, Voronova, Julia and high primrose join it, in May the relay goes to pink, ear and ordinary primroses, and by the end of the month powdery primrose switches all its attention to itself.

Only in June the primrose of Japan will sparkle with the beauty of inflorescences, and by July, they will be joined by the primrose of Viale, Florinda and Sikkim, and the primrose of Florinda will delight until mid-August.

By the possibilities of use in the design of the garden, these species are completely unparalleled. For example, you can always use the classic placement options for individual types of primrose:

1. the primaries of Voronov and Julia will find a place in mixborders, borders, in the foreground of flower beds, on alpine hills and even rockeries;
2. primrose Japanese, Sikkim and Florinda will become the best decoration of ponds and water bodies - ponds, streams, etc., as well as marshy beds and places with high humidity;
3. fine-toothed primrose will not be lost in any flower garden in the company of perennials and flowering shrubs;
4. spring primrose will happily create colorful spots on the lawn.

But primrose can be used not only as described above. They will find a place on the lawn, and in discounts or mixborders, to create color accents, at the edges, they can be planted as masking plants, fillers, "spots" and arrays, and even used as potted plants.

Where and no matter how you use primrose, the main thing is to remember that it will be easier to grow them, the larger group you can place them. The point is not only that primrose loves a tight enough fit - such that there is no free soil between the outlets. Placing primroses in groups of 5-7 plants, you will get a bright spot that requires virtually no care and attention, and reveal the beauty of not only flowering, but also the leaves of these plants.

For a “lazy" garden, it’s worth choosing the right one for primroses and partners, given that planting with the most spectacular plants will by no means simplify caring for the composition as a whole. Primroses go well with small-onion and bulb onions that do not need to be excavated, which grow without care at all - muscari, non-sorted daffodils, etc., perennial violets and saxifrages, cereals, irises, hosts, ferns and rogers.

Features of caring for unpretentious sheep

Caring for primrose is amazingly simple. These plants just need a few procedures:

1. Weeding and loosening the soil or replacing both care centers with soil mulching (you can even use ordinary loose soil at least about 3 cm high).
2. Watering when planting in dry soil or in a sunny place in a drought.
3. Top dressing in early spring, if there is time and desire - three times a season (after snow melts, after 2-3 weeks and in July-August).
4. Separation of bushes every 3-4 years.
5. Shelter for the winter with a layer of dry leaves to protect from snowless periods and temperature extremes (layer up to 10 cm).

The right choice of conditions for primrose is a guarantee of success

In order for primrose to really become plants for the lazy, they fit into the concept of a reasonable saving of time and creating compositions that require almost no care, for them you need to carefully select the growing conditions.

First of all, we must not forget that all the primroses described above are not shade-loving cultures, but shade-tolerant, and certainly moisture-loving. For primroses in the garden, any semi-shady, secluded area with fresh, fairly moist soil (raw - only for species that are used in the design of the reservoir) will be an ideal place. Primrose can be grown in the open sun, but only if you do not want to create a rationally-economical garden.

After all, the brighter the lighting, the more it will be necessary to water the plants, they will bloom literally in a matter of days and the foliage will not decorate the flower garden or the flower garden, which means that their true beauty will not be fully revealed. It will be necessary to wait until primrose can again become a decoration of the site until the fall, when leaf growth resumes again and, under very favorable weather conditions, one can even count on repeated flowering.But if you plant primrose in partial shade, for example, under openwork trees and shrubs, they will look good from the start to the end of the garden season.

It is better to pay more attention to soil quality. The soil must be both loose and permeable, but not excessively light. For primroses, heavy and compacted or incapable of holding water soils — neither clay nor sandy soils without further improvement — will not work. But loams and sandstones, especially if they add organic matter and other improving additives before planting, are ideal for primrose.

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