Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Primula Juliae... Closer To The Mark
As I noted, the little primrose shown below in my note about Primula juliae is surely a hybrid of juliae, probably crossed with vulgaris; the leaves are too large and crinkled and not round enough for pure juliae, among other things. The above picture from our garden is much closer to the mark: a very tiny little creeper, with quite small, roundish leaves, deeply cleft at the petioles... they almost look like little grasshopper-green creeping Charley leaves. Even this plant, with its pale pink flowers, instead of the usual bright red-pink may not be completely true juliae (I'm not sure the leaves are completely right, either)... but it's awfully close.
Juliae hybrids commercially are sold under a number of different appellations: juliae, juliana, Wanda, and Pruhonica... they are all wonderful, but some are more wonderful than others. Unfortunately, as time goes on, with progressive hybridization and unintentional contamination of strains, primroses offered as "juliae" are sometimes getting a long way from home.
// posted by IBOY @ 9:31 PM 
