PRIMULA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



PRIMULA. 



a half-shady one. Good varieties are : j 

 Cecil Rhodes, dark ruby-red, the best I 

 of its class ; Evelyn Ark-bright, only 

 differing from the wild kind in its 

 immense flowers, 2 to i\ inches 

 across ; Miss Massey, dark maroon- 

 crimson with a golden eye ; Munstead | 

 Early White, white with a golden I 

 centre, early in flower ; Novelty, large , 

 flowers of a pretty tender green shade ; i 

 Oakwood Blue, a good blue kind, 

 which in turn has given other shades | 

 known as Wilson's New Blue Prim- I 

 roses. 



The forms most precious for the ; 

 garden are the beautiful old double 

 kinds. No prettier flowers ever 

 warmed into beauty under a northern 



extreme north, where the climate is 

 at once moist and temperate, they grow 

 almost with luxuriance. Increased by 

 division preferably after flowering. 



The Rev. P. Mules, a good grower 

 of the Double Primroses, wrote to 

 the Field about them : " Unless these 

 flowers have been seen at their best, 

 and that can only be under the favour- 

 able conditions of suitable soil, pure 

 air, and great experience in culture, 

 no one can imagine their beauty. 

 I have had a bed of fifty plants of 

 the double white carrying at one 

 time 4,000 fully expanded blooms, 

 averaging ig inches in diameter. So 

 also Pompadour, with blooms of still 

 larger size, which has flowered without 



Primrose Munstead Early White. 



sun than their delicately-tinted little 

 rosettes. Once they were in every 

 garden, but the day came when, 

 like many hardy flowers, they were 

 cast aside to make way for gaudier 

 things. The best known and most 

 distinctly marked are the double 

 lilac, double purple, double sulphur, 

 double white, double crimson, and 

 double red. The double kinds are 

 slower in growth and more delicate 

 than the single ones, and require 

 more care, and the development 

 of healthy foliage after flowering 

 should be the object of those who 

 wish to succeed with them. In the 

 double kinds the deeper the hue the 

 less robust the plant. The rich crim- 

 sons and the deep purples are usually 

 most difficult to cultivate, but in the I 



intermission since October, throwing 

 its rich crimson blossoms well above 

 the succulent green foliage, and pre- 

 senting a fine picture of form and 

 colour. Then we have double rose, 

 double mauve, double dark lilac, 

 double cerise, double sulphur, double 

 yellow, and double rose white mottled. 

 Besides these are some bright crim- 

 sons, making a combination of colours 

 which lend themselves to many varie- 

 ties of garden and house decoration. 

 Some the sulphur and the dark lilac 

 occasionally throw up corymbose heads 

 Polyanthus-wise ; but this is not un- 

 common with many Primroses, and 

 is the result of high cultivation, and 

 occurs towards the end of the flowering 

 period. The reason that the rarer 

 varieties are difficult and expensive to 



