3 o GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



" Primrose Garden " at Munstead, this useful type of garden flower is 

 fully described. The Munstead Primroses " are, broadly speaking, white 

 and yellow varieties of the strong bunch-flowered or Polyanthus kind, 

 but they vary in detail so much, in form, colour, habit, arrangement, 

 and size of eye and shape of edge, that one year thinking it might be 

 useful to classify them I tried to do so, but gave it up after writing out 

 the characters of sixty classes ! Their possible variation seems endless. 

 Every year among the seedlings there appear a number of charming 

 flowers with some new development of size, or colour of flower, or beauty 

 of foliage, and yet all within the narrow bounds of white and yellow 

 Primroses. Their time of flowering is much later than that of the true 

 or single-stalked Primrose. They come into bloom early in April, though 

 a certain number of poorly developed flowers generally come much 

 earlier, and they are at their best in the last two weeks of April and the 

 first days of May. When the bloom wanes, and is nearly overtopped 

 by the leaves, the time has come that I find best for dividing and re- 

 planting. The plants then seem willing to divide, some about falling 

 apart in one's hands, and the new roots may be seen just beginning to 

 form at the base of the crown. The plants are at the same time relieved 

 of the crowded mass of flower-stem, and, therefore, of the exhausting 

 effort of forming seed, a severe drain on their strength. A certain number 

 will not have made more than one strong crown, and a few single-crown 

 plants have not flowered ; these of course do not divide. ..." Writing 

 of the time of sowing the seed, the author says : "As nearly as I can 

 make out, it is well in heavy soils to sow when ripe, and in light ones 

 to wait until March. In some heavy soils Primroses stand for two years 

 without division ; whereas in light ones, such as mine, they take up the 

 food within reach in a much shorter time, so that by the second year 

 the plant has become a crowded mass of weak crowns that only throw 

 up poor flowers, and are by then so much exhausted that they are not 

 worth dividing afterwards. In my own case, having tried both ways, 

 I find the March sown ones the best. The seed is sown in boxes in cold 

 frames, and pricked out again into boxes when large enough to handle. 

 The seedlings are planted out in June, when they seem to go on without 

 any check whatever, and are just right for blooming next spring." These 

 remarks by an authority upon the subject must be helpful to readers. 

 The bunch-flowered Primroses are of many colours, soft and dainty 

 tones, pure white, intense orange, and so forth. The Oxlip is generally 

 supposed to be a natural hybrid between the Primrose and the Cowslip 

 though there is some doubt about this. It is found wild in a few places, 

 notably the Bardfield district of Essex. 



The late Mr. Wilson of Weybridge raised a race of blue Primroses, 

 not the blue of the Gentian, but a very beautiful series of colours, some- 

 times purple blue with crimson eye, and several of the varieties have been 

 named, such as Oakwood Blue, all being well placed against moss-covered 

 stones to bring out the distinctive flower colouring. A deep red or 

 crimson is a good colour to obtain. 



The double Primroses are not easy to manage. They are more sue- 



