Pretty primroses and pops of polyanthus

I’m calling on all schools to get their gardening gloves on!

The Muintir na Tire school garden awards were launched at Griffins Garden Centre on Tuesday and it was lovely to see and hear how primary school pupils from county and city are excited about gardening and how this helps the environment.

For this event, we planted up many colourful containers with primroses and you could see so many bees harvesting the pollen and nectar. With such a scarce food source at this time of the year, the bees will feast on primroses and other spring flowering plants until spring produces other food sources for bees.

As most of you know, I love the primrose. It is definitely a sign that spring has arrived!

Primrose plants come in many different colours and will brighten up your containers or borders at this time of year. Primroses are amongst the most welcome since they mean that spring and early summer has definitely arrived after the long winter. The little wild yellow primrose plant, from which most of the cultivated varieties have been bred are now popping up on our hedgerows. Last weekend I spotted many beginning to bloom along the route that I love to walk.

Many people say they aren’t successful when growing primroses. If you grow them correctly, they will come back year after year. So we will look at the wild primrose.

They thrive on a sunny side of a hedge. So from this, we can learn that primroses love good drainage and should always be tilted. The reason for tilting is their foliage is like a cup it will hold all the rainwater. The causes the middle of the plant to rot. If we tilt all primroses when planting, the rainwater will roll off the plant leaving a happy primrose that will flower all spring long.

Single primroses is the one you will mainly see in borders beds and baskets. They are close to the ground and the flowers are low among the leaves. They come in an array of colours to brighten up your garden beds and pots.

The primrose makes an excellent garden plant for a variety of situations, including wild gardens, orchards, hedge bottoms, under trees and in the front of the herbaceous border. They appreciate light shade during the hottest months of the summer, which can be provided as taller herbaceous plants grow in early summer. Primroses benefit from planting in a fertile, well-dug soil, and from frequent division.

Double primrose

Ballerina primroses are refined beauties that completely embody the joy and hope that spring offers. Their sizable double blossoms appear in a rainbow of colours and bloom profusely throughout the spring season atop the compact, bright green foliage. Though they are perfectly hardy in the landscape, be sure to plant a few in combination containers and windowsill pots where you can view their gorgeous flowers up close.

Polyanthus vs primrose

Polyanthus were a result of crossing primroses and cowslips. They have multiple large flowers on a long stem in a far wider range of colours than primroses, including reds, oranges, purples and pinks. Polyanthus Stella is a fantastic hardy multiflora polyanthus in a beautiful scarlet colour that will stand out in your garden. This Stella range has a darker foliage than other polyanthus and will flower throughout spring, growing 30cms in height these are also great to brighten up your containers.

Care

Feed with slow-release food and if you want your flowers to continue through to late spring, feed with Maxicrop seaweed food. This is the most amazing food I have ever used and I have been using this for 30 years.

Most people bury their plants too deep in the ground and also too deep in pots and containers. Keep your primroses raised over the ground. This prevents leaves getting diseased and rotting. If you have yellow or rotting leaves, remove them straight away. Again, just have a look at how primroses are growing in ditches. Primroses like spring sunshine but full-on summer sun is far too intense.