Primroses are such charming, old fashioned springtime perennials, I love them dearly. If you haven't grown them, be sure to take a look at this thread on the Irises Cubit with loads of beautiful pics of Primula grown by a member in France- you'll definitely want to have some in your spring garden!

http://cubits.org/irisforum/th...

I am told sieboli (sp?) would be the best here, but I love the polyanthis type, not the 'pacific' ones which die off right away.

That's been my experience with the Pacific Giants too, they just die after the blooms fade. They still nearly seduce me with all those beautiful colors when I see them lined up on wracks in the spring.

Now, the Pacific Giants stay long term for me, if I divide them yearly. But I love the looks of the sieboldii best.

After seeing Clusianas pictures I want more.

I want more too - I just love them!

I have a feeling its the summer heat and humidity that does the Pacific Giants in here, not sure though.

We had high heat here this summer, but not everyone. (summer). However I tried the Pac. g. when we lived in CT & no luck at all.

I realize this thread is 6 months old already, but thought I'd chime in.

I've never been able to "summer over" my Pac G's either...but for the past 2 years I've been successful. I always treated them as annuals in the past, but our past two winters have been much colder than usual. I stopped directly watering them in the summer, but mulced them heavily when they were dormant, covered them with a large pot, and they came back. I was shocked. Same for the P. obconica's which are in the same spot.

Our summers are also hot and humid, but it worked like a charm. Here's one grouping of them.

oops. Forgot to add the picture !
This photo was taken 2-11 They're MUCH bigger now, but the batteries in my camera are dead !

Good work. I had always heard that Pac Giants were tender, but did not realize that that included CA.

Those are beautiful, Mike!

I was saddened to see that my Japanese Primula seem to be gone now. I'd started them from seed and they finally bloomed the 3rd year, last spring. After blooming they just sort of disappeared, and I assumed they'd gone dormant. I'm pretty sure if any were still there I would have seen something while weeding a few days ago; I remember last year at this time being surprised at how fast they were growing. They survived a couple of tough summers before they bloomed, so I can't imagine what would have done them in last summer?

Did it get dry in your garden last summer?

It did get really dry here in late summer, and remained dry throughout the fall until cold weather hit. I was concerned that I'd lose some things- going into winter dormancy with water stress is never a good thing.

I'm not up on primulas, Neal, but is that the drumstick primula? If so, I have to divide those almost every year to keep them going. Along with the ??polyanthus?? ones.

Polly, I was about to say yes, and looked them up to be sure, but those known as drumstick primrose are said to be Primula denticulata, and the pics look like the balls of blooms are tighter and more perfectly spherical. I then looked up Primula japonica and it looks like a match. I believe the Japanese primroses require more moisture than most, the friend who sent me the seeds grows them on a stream bank where they seed themselves and have naturalized. I don't think she divides hers.

I'm not up on the difference between the Polyanthus types and Primula? They look like the same genus to me.

Do you divide them just after blooming?

I do, otherwise I wouldn't know where they are as the foliage disappears here.