Primula sikuensis

[alan jones]

Primula sikuensis

I would appreciate more information about Primula sikuensis, seed of which I was fortunate enough to obtain from SRGS’s 2010/11 Seed Distribution, numbered 3363.  In the note on Page 35 of the Seed Distribution booklet it is referred to as ‘this small and worthy gem, a cousin of the strapping P.polyneura…my most desirable seed-giving plant in cortusoides, so let’s keep it going before its genes get contaminated.’  I’ve looked it up in Roy Green’s excellent book ‘Asiatic Primulas’, published by the Alpine Garden Society in 1976, but the index note simply reads, ‘sikuensis = polyneura’.  As my seed is germinating, I’d like to know as much as possible about the plant...so I can give it my best attention.
 

[Maggi Young]

Primula sikuensis was described as P. polyneura subsp. sikuensis (I. B. Balfour & Farrer) W. W. Smith & Forrest and it is not a nmae that one comes across very often.

I believe that Primula polyneura in the wild grows in dampish woodland edges, along streams .... so a cool moist spot seems advisable... one would hope you shouldn't have too much trouble providing that in Liverpool, Alan, but even in Aberdeen we have difficulty in keeping this cool and moist enough  or to keep a lot of primulas content in recent years.

Lovely furry foliage  and elegant flower stems.

There are some super photos in Pam Eveleigh's Primula World: http://www.primulaworld.com/PWweb/photogallery.htm