In the fine Timber Press book PRIMULAS , the monster monograph on the genus primula by John Richards , one can let on that the lovely florist shop flower we sometimes incur in secure greenhouses on these short day - length winter day primrose malacoides was consider a lowly weed . According to change state - of - the - Century plant explorer George Forrest , ” P. malacoides is clearly an abundant field weed in these localities of Dali , Lichang , Tengyueh and Yunnansen ” . Yet , as abundant this “ weed ” apparently was in 1900 , today , modern refinement method may have rendered this man - hooked species very uncommon in the wild .
First flowered in cultivation from source collected by Forrest in 1908 , the specie of P. malacoides was quickly embrace by commercial seed growers in England , and within a 10 , became a fragrant , colorful strain trade in the cold greenhouse of Europe and the United States . Many name straining were stick in in the early twentieth Century , and all of a sudden , Primula malacoides became one of the most pop pot plants for conservatory culture , specially since it is primarily a wintertime grower , and , profitable for commercial agriculturist , since it ’s roots of once being a skunk in the rice fields of China , mean that it was indeed and annual , so new crops would need to be produce each yr , to occupy the flora window and conservatory in the winter .
Today , the specie is less common , being short - know in our hot , dry modernistic home climates , and this species , along with it ’s companion metal money which shares the same growing time of year , Primula obconica , apportion the trait of get primulin , a chemical substance in all primula species , but specially irritable in these two species to a few multitude who are supersensitized to it . For some plainly touching the pilus on the leaf of these two metal money , may cause a dermatitis or an itchy hotshot not unlike poison ivy , but can have a serious reckless headache or sickness . This has been pretty bred out of new hybrids , and comparatively few the great unwashed have a grave reaction .
Primula malacoides is an yearly that blooms in the short days of winter , so seed must be sown in the nursery in June or July , if one desire plant for January . Most grower today use a peat based soiless mix , but many experts choose a loam ground filth . This is a plant that should never be allowed to dry out , and it prefers a buoyant , moist cool standard atmosphere . If you materialize to find a plant of this Primrose , it may be good to pot it up into a larger stiff weed , for the 4 column inch charge card pot that commercial-grade cultivator use are unsuitably little , and dry out out in a day or two . I repot memory bought or glasshouse bought plant into 6 inch clay pots , and allow them sit in water once or twice a week . Primula malacoides grows in Burma , and Sichuan at 5000 ft in meadows and damp fields , so take a moral from it ’s native haunts , since it mature wild around the mounds and shores of rice paddy ’s . There are interrelate coinage which have completely fallen out of favor in commercial gardening , P. forbesii which was introduced by Vilmorin of Paris in 1891 . Reportedly , this metal money was vulgar in spectacular wintertime conservatory showing in Paris around 1900 , with pink blossoms almost covering the plants in monumental planting underglass . Today , I have yet to find it .
This weekend I found some P. malacoides at a local garden nerve center , and I grabbed one of each color . We hosted a meeting of the New England Primula Society on Saturday for a luncheon , and I needed some Primroses since this year I did not raise any . These potted plant life are so fragrant , that it feel like saltation as shortly as you walked into the greenhouse . I ’ve been appear for my deary , but seldom grown flower store primula , Primula obconica , but could not find them again , anywhere . But the greenhouse where I grease one’s palms these , had see some at the Boston Flower Market , and predict to corrupt a subject for me , for next weekend , I can not await .
Last year , while in Japan during February , I saw incredible cultivars of both P. malacoides and P. obconica , both distributed by Sakata Seed , but not usable here , in the US .
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