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PETIOLARES PRIMULA

This article is written by me and brought in the Danish Primrose Society’s magazine in October 2002.

The Petiolares section is with 60 species probably the second largest section in the Primula family, the largest being the Farinosa section with over 80 species. Beside the 60 species, there are some varieties and hybrids. Primula from the section Petiolares comes from the Himalayas, the western Chinese mountains, the south / south-eastern Tibet and northeastern Burma. Here they grow in cool places near water and in full shade.

I think the first time I heard about the Petiolares, were when visiting a plant market here in Denmark. A plant seller had two Primula, I had not seen before. It was Primula bhutanica and P. nepalensis and he told me that they belonged to the section Petiolares. It was before the Internet and John Richards’s fabulous book “Primula”. I knew Primula is divided into groups, or sections, but I didn’t know all the different sections and their names. For me, sections were not important at that time. Primula from the section Petiolares were very rare in Denmark at that time. I bought both Primula and when I came home; I found a good place in the garden where I planted my two newly purchased plants. What I have since learned is that you can save yourself for many annoyances, by reading about the plants and their needs before buying them. Only a few days after I have planted them, they died. I had planted them in peat together with some small Rhododendrons. That should be fine, but I planted them in full sun, which Petiolares Primula absolutely dislikes. I do not know whether it was the sun that killed them, or it was the heat, because where I have planted them, it is very hot during the summer time, and I have since found out that heat it is the sure dead for Petiolares Primula. I since bought another two plants and they got a better location in the garden, a bed in full shade, which is built up as an acid rock garden. The stones helps to cool the soil, which is moist sphagnum, mixed well with composted needles from pines and leaves. In the compost I put a little slow releasing fertilizer. After they have been growing in the same place for some time e.g. three years, I dig them up and divide them, it is something you should do, with all primulas and if you don’t do it with Petiolares, they will not thrive and at last they will rot. The best time to divide them is in Spring just after flowering. After dividing, the plants will always be little weak, because you have damaged their root system, therefore it can be useful to reduce evaporation by cutting of half of each leaf.

I am member of The Alpine Garden Society and in 1994 I got a seed list from the Danish Chapter. It was seeds collected in Yunnan by A.J. Clark, J. Nielsen and M.R.J. Wilson. Primarily they had collected seeds of Rhododendron, but on the list were also seed from a few other species e.g. some rare primroses, not seen very often in culture. I ordered 5 different species and today it annoys me that I did not order all 18 Primula that was on the list. Even though I did not get many primulas from my 5 portions. After two years one of the portions germinated, it was Primula sonchifolia. The seed were collected at a height of 3750 meters on the damp (winter dry) high alpine meadow Napa Hai, located on the high plateau Zhongdian in Yunnan province.

When you sow seed from Petiolares primulas, they should be sown fresh, if they dry out they may lie in the soil for several years before germinating, if ever. The seed I received were not fresh and after 2 years only one seedling germinated. I nursed it with water and fertilizer throughout the summer and next spring a small plant were ready to be planted out in the garden. I planted it in the shadow, under a tall Cypress, where I had prepared a bed for it, a good place for the little new Primula. It grew well and I were very exited when it flowered. The color of the flower was pale blue, much more blue than the P. sonchifolia I later bought in Cluny House Garden, Scotland. The leaves were also different, it was more serrated and the middle nerve was red. After a couple of years, my wife told me to give it a better place in the garden and so I did. Only to see it die a few days after, since then I always say ‘don’t listening to you wife’.

On the Danish Primula Societys seed list in 1998 there were seeds of Primula calderiana ssp strumosa. This Petiolares Primula has its natural range in western Nepal, and eastern Bhutan. The seed on the list were probably not wild collected. I was lucky to get a portion of this seed. I think the seeds may have been sent to the Danish Society in summer 1997 and although I must say the seeds didn’t look quite fresh luck stroke again and one tiny seedling emerged. After having given the seedling the same care as I have given the P. sonchifolia, I had a small plant for planting out in the garden in spring 1999. In early summer 2001, the plant got a yellow flower on a 35. cm.  high stalk. The flowers had an orange-yellow eye, and they smelled faintly sweet of fish, which is characteristic of the specie Primula calderiana.

 

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