12 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



April 20, 1911. 



r 



.{•^^•^.{•%.W'^^^%.<»^.<»^V>^-fe»>-fe:»>'fe»>'fef»>'i^?»>-fer»)-^r»)'fe^'S^^ 



NOTES ON 



PRIMROSES 



i 



A GROWERS' OBSERVATION. 



Primula Obconica. 



I was first introduced to Primula ob 

 oonica in 1888, when working in Eng- 

 land. Since then, till only a few years 

 ago, I had seen little of it. It was 

 natural that the improvements worked 

 during a period of almost twenty years 

 were a great surprise to me. From 

 that tiny whitish flower had developed 

 something remarkable, not only in size, 

 but also in range of colors, which could 

 not help but attract, and the vast sales 

 noW are proof of its popularity. 



We have now three distinct varieties 

 of P. obconica; namely, obconica gran- 

 diflora, obconica gtandiflora fimbriata 

 and obconica Arendsi, commonly called 

 gigantea. Then there are the sub- 

 divisions of grandiflora compacta and 

 gigantea compacta. These, however, 

 always appeared to me more like plants 

 that for some reason or other did not 

 grow well; they do not show in their 

 character the grace and boldness of 

 their sisters, and I have dropped them 

 entirely. 



The Obconica Colors, 



The grandiflora type gives us now a 

 wide range of colors, including white, 

 apple-blossom, rose, carmine, blood (red, 

 true blue and purple, and then there are 

 the many shades of lilac, reminding one 

 of the daintiest hues in cattleyas. It is 

 hard to say which shade to give the 

 preference; wait long enough, till they 

 have at least a dozen fljower spikes 

 open, and they will all sell. The grandi- 

 flora fimbriata does not contain so large 

 a variety of colors, white, pink, car- 

 mine and light and dark lilac being all, 

 and of these the most perfect flowers 

 are found in pink and white shades. 

 Of the Arendsi or gigantea type, origi- 

 nator's strain, we have only lilac, rose 

 and carmine as colors available for 

 commerce, as the other colors of oculata 

 (dark-eyed) and fimbriata are too ex- 

 pensive as seeds for the present. I 

 have noted that some firms list gigan- 

 tea in white, but the originator does 

 not list this color, nor does any other 

 European seed house, to my knowledge. 

 The distinction between the grandi- 

 flora and gigantea types is quite marked, 

 li^nuch less in the size of the flower than 

 .in the plant itself. The foliage of gi- 

 gantea is heavier and the flower stems 

 are stronger, while the flower itself ex- 

 pands more, with the single flowers 

 generally larger, though the apple-blos- 

 som shade of grandiflora has flowers 

 fully as large as any of the gigantea 

 type. 



Cultivation of Obconicas. 



Many writers seem to advocate ex- 

 tremely early sowing, some advising 

 a sowing in January and early Feb- 

 ruary. My experience teaches me that 

 the best time is the last part of Feb- 

 ruary and the early part of March, if 



frame culture can be given in summer. 

 A cool place makes them grow sur- 

 prisingly fast and a strong dose of 

 liquid cow manure every week will 

 work wonders. 



I sow my seeds in flats, in which the 

 soil reaches to within one-half inch of 

 the top. The soil is not pressed down 

 hard, but simply shaken down and 

 leveled. The seed is then sown and 

 wetted down with a fine syringe. This 

 wetting down just lets the seeds sink 

 into the soil to the right depth. A pane 

 of glass, cut to the size of the flat, 

 goes on, with two thicknesses of news- 

 paper on top of this. As soon as 

 germjnation starts, one paper is taken 

 off and a little air is given. When the 

 seed leaves have formed, the other 

 paper comes off during the night and 

 dull weather. I have found that this 

 method gives me the best results; it 

 seems that every seed makes a plant. 



The soil used for sowing should not 

 contain any leaf-mold or peat — just 

 plain, ordinary, spent hotbed soil, com- 



pletely decayed and well mixed with 

 sand. The flats should be put in a 

 fairly warm place for the first four 

 weeks and kept cooler and cooler as the 

 plants grow. 



I transplant into flats from the seed 

 flats and then into 2-inch pots. Those 

 that I grow to larger sizes, mainly for 

 the purpose of testing, get a stiffer soil 

 every time they are transplanted. Dur- 

 ing the summer they are in shallow 

 frames, covered with shades made of 

 ordinary building laths, where they can 

 be syringed several times during the 

 noon hours without removing the 

 shades. Over night the shades are, of 

 course, removed. After they are in 

 the houses, they are kept cool, which 

 gives the flowers size and color, and 

 the weekly dose of liquid manure or 

 nitrate of soda must not be neglected. 

 Brilliancy of color and size of flower 

 are entirely in the hands of the grower. 



Chinensis Grandiflora Fimbriata. 



The large flowering, fringed Chinese 

 primroses have been known much longer 

 than the obconicas and were fairly well 

 developed twenty years ago, but have 

 also experienced much improvement, of 

 course, since then. In this class we 

 have two varieties. Carbuncle and De- 

 fiance, which have perhaps the finest 

 and brightest deep, glistening red col- 

 ors which I can recall in any flower. 

 All colors of this class are desirable, 

 for we must please many tastes. There 

 are the pure white, the scarlet, blue,, 

 blush, rose, carmine, mauve, spotted. 



Primula Kewensis. 



