Who wouldn’t like house plants that could be easily raised from seed, were neat in growth, and would keep the windows full of bloom all winter long—east, south, or west windows, filled with enough bloom even to allow judicious cutting occasionally for the table!
Charming Primula Family
The plants that fill these specifications are the tender members of that charming family, the primulas or primroses.
The three most commonly grown as house plants are the following:
- Primula malacoides, the fairy primrose
- Primula sinensis, the Chinese primrose
- Primula obconica
Perhaps you have bought them at the florist’s or have had a plant sent to you during the holidays.
However, if you raise them yourself, you can have them literally by the hundreds to fill your home with delight and present them to friends when the occasion arises.
Dainty Fairy Primrose
The fairy primrose is well named. Its flowers are small but are produced in profusion and are arranged in tiers that seem to arise almost indefinitely ceilingward.
I usually cut mine when they begin to lean over and use them in flower arrangements with suitable foliage.
They come in many shades of lilac, rose, and white.
An odd habit of the fairy primrose is that of occasionally producing miniature plants in one of the flower umbels.
Last winter, I tried cutting them off and rooting them in a mixture of sand and soil.
At first, I was unsuccessful, but I finally found that by cutting them with a stem an inch or more long and inserting this in the sand of one of my African violet propagating jars, just far enough so that the base of the tiny plant rested on the sand, they would eventually form roots and grow.
Showy Primula Sinensis
Primula sinensis has much larger flowers and is far showier than the fairy primrose, though it lacks its dainty charm.
The flowers come in much of the saute range of colors and are approximately three times larger.
They, too, have the tiers or superimposed umbels of flowers, but I have never found the little plants on them.
As they grow older, they develop several crowns like their more hardy outdoor relatives, and these are easily divided to increase your stock of favorite colors.
Immense Primula Obconica
Primula obconica, I have not yet grown.
However, it is a much larger plant growing to one foot.
Its colors run to the salmon shades and the colors found in malacoides and sinensis.
The individual blossoms are not quite as large as the Chinese primrose.
This primula is most likely to bother people susceptible to primrose poisoning, so unless you know you are immune or are willing to take a chance, you will do well to avoid it.
Sow Primula Seeds Outdoors
Primula seed should be sown any time after the first of January indoors.
Ordinary potting soil is satisfactory. The seeds are best sown in rows and covered with a light sprinkling of sand.
The seedlings will be up in 2 to 3 weeks. They can be handled the same as any other perennial and should be kept thriving.
As soon as they are large enough, separate and transplant the seedlings to a larger flat where they will have more room.
I put mine about 1 ½” inches apart from each way. Then, when they become crowded, I pot them up in 2-inch pots.
They will start to bloom in these but will do better in 3-inch pots.
Ideal Growing Conditions
The most important thing to remember during the summer is that they like cool, moist growing conditions.
If you have a spot under a tree with high shade, they will thrive there perfectly.
Water them once a day if it doesn’t rain, preferably early in the morning.
A little morning sun is beneficial, but they will do better with too little than with too much direct sun long as they have plenty of light.
Experimenting On Growing Primroses
I have flowered the fairy primrose by the middle of September from the seed sown on May 21.
The Chinese primrose takes longer to develop.
All the house plant books I have read say that primroses are difficult to carry over the summer and that it is best to start new plants each year.
However, I can never discard any plant as long as it is growing well, so the first one I had, which was a Chinese primrose purchased from a florist, I decided to use it in an experiment.
I set the pot out in a garden bed that was shaded a large part of the day.
No matter how often I watered it, the leaves were always drooping. I had about decided the books were right.
After a month, I took the pot up and brought it back to the house, where I placed it in a north window.
It perked up immediately and started to bloom again. Since then, I have had no trouble and have found that these plants will even thrive outdoors under the tree with the pots of seedlings so long as they do not get any direct sun and are watered regularly.
The fairy primroses last summer continued to bloom outdoors with the same exuberance that they had shown during the winter, and when I went to bring the pots indoors in the fall, I found the ground between them spotted with self-sown seedlings.
These plants seem to be slightly more difficult to carry over. It may be that they should be divided in the spring before being set outdoors.
Many of mine had grown so large—6” to 8” inches across—that the heavy foliage at the base had rotted off the stems.
When I found out what was happening, I divided the plants but only saved a few of the divisions.
Ideal Location And Watering Schedule
Primulas thrive all winter, even in a south window, but towards spring, when the sun begins to get higher, they should be moved to east or north windows, or a sheer curtain should be hung between them and the glass.
They need plenty of water. So I water mine early each day until water runs out the drainage hole.
However, care must be taken not to leave them standing in water.
A tray for the pots filled with peat moss, sand, or pebbles keeps the pot’s base above water but allows more moisture evaporation into the air around plants.
To me, primroses are one of the most satisfactory of all house plants, repaying me many times over for the modest care they require.