Moisture-loving Primulas 1 1 3 



disposed, should be grown by all. Neat and pretty, 

 it bears crowds of reddish-crimson golden-eyed flowers 

 in spring. Beside tiny rivulet or in moist or cool 

 places the white lilac-tinted P. involucrata should be 

 grown. It is both easy and good. Lastly, for the 

 rock garden mention must be made of P. rosea, 

 unique among them all ; and that wide and diversified 

 set of varieties known as P. Sieboldi, both of which 

 flourish well in rich moist soils and cool or partially 

 shaded places generally. 



Bog-loving Primulas 



To cultivators of experience it is well known that 

 not a few of the bolder-growing species of Primula 

 grow most luxuriantly with their feet in water or at 

 least in constant touch with moisture. The best sub- 

 stitute for such conditions is found in cool or moist 

 woodland places, and where these obtain the majority 

 do quite well. Modification of the idea, too, enables 

 the cultivator to grow these plants on a more lavish 

 scale, since the "bog" condition is by no means general 

 in gardens. This notwithstanding, it should be re- 

 membered that such as P. pulverulenta, P, BuUeyana, 

 and others, are true bog-gloving kinds, the first named 

 only reaching its maximum vigour and flowering in 

 such places, when the 5 to 6 feet high plants with their 

 amazing wealth of blossoms afford a faint idea of their 

 supreme grandeur in Nature's vaster domain. The 

 well-known P. japonica, too, is never so happy as when 

 planted on the sloping sides of brooklet or stream, 

 where its extending roots are ever in touch with 

 water. Here in rich and deep soils and in partial 

 shade the plants attain to giant proportions, widely 

 removed from the wretched caricatures too often seen 

 in herbaceous or shrub borders, where the very essen- 

 tials of life are denied them. Then it should be noted 

 that the moisture they love so well plays an impor- 

 tant part in seedling-raising; fresh seeds falling on 



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