HARDY ASIATIC PRIMULAS 
OST in the clouds on the roof of the world 
is a land incredibly beautiful and harsh and 
fabulously rich in the treasures of the earth. 
Here many of the Primulas, Rhododen- 
drons, Poppies, Gentians, Iris and Lilies we 
now grow in our gardens concentrate on the 
slopes and in the valleys in gigantic pat- 
: —. terns and for these, collectors risked their 
ican as s the’na natives do for gold. There is a strange belief held 
by the Tibetan priests that gold is a plant of which the nug- 
gets are the seed or root — the dust and spangles are the 
flowers — and lest the annual gold harvest decrease, 
gold washers are required to return to the earth all 
nuggets unwittingly exposed or pay the supreme penalty. 
Yet nuggets have reached the outside world. We are used to 
hearing of men risking their lives for gold, but few realize 
there were men so devoted to floral beauty they were will- 
ing to be hunted and tracked and who feared the loss of their 
collections more than they did their lives. 

The hardy Himalayan Primulas they brought out are easi- 
ly grown in the temperate zone, for though growing in a lati- 
tude corresponding to that of northern Mexico, altitude 
ranges between two and three miles above sea level. They 
do require more shade, more water and humic soil, seeking 
as they do the pine and birch forests, bamboo brakes, moist 
alpine meadows and stream banks with the monsoon dump- 
ing its water load from April to October, the period of their 
amazing activity in which they leaf out after dormancy, 
bloom prodigiously, often make an entirely new set of roots 
and multiply their crowns. So give them more shade than 
sun, a good soil kept moist throughout the spring and sum- 
mer and in their happy state they will self-sow their seed, 
perpetuating their dramatic beauty and oriental mystery in 
your garden. 
Pee, 
