Can anyone identify this Primula?

[Sally]

This Primula has been grown for decades by several generations of my family. Am I correct in thinking it's a P. juliana? It vegetatively multiplies as they do. Does anyone know the variety name?


Sally

[ArdfearnAli]

Hello Sally,
               I have what I think is the same plant and had it for years. I think your correct with Primula Juliana. I have it under Primula Wanda. I checked and its full name is Primula x Juliana Wanda. It looks very similar to mine. I used to have a semidouble form and also a hose and hose form but over the years seem to have lost them. It needs splitting up from time to time to keep it growing strongly. Another I have which is excellent is Primula hallbarn blue. It multiplies up just as well and has blue flowers.

Alasdair

[ian mcdonald]

When I saw the photo, before Ali,s comment I thought it looked like Wanda. We used to have it many years ago. My Mum liked it and she was the inspiration for me getting involved with wild flowers.

[Sally]

Thanks Alasdair and Ian. Our family always called the violet to purple version of this Primrose 'Wanda'. Our 'Wanda' flowers are not stalked; they look more like P. acaulis and this deep true pink version has flowers that are stalked like P. polyanthus. Both are great spreaders.  I agree that they do much better if taken up and divided.  The reward is an absolute blanket of color the following year. Alasdair, is 'Hallbarn Blue' a true blue? Are the flowers stalked?  I've nearly lost what we call 'Wanda', but if I can find it I'll take a photo to show the dramatic difference in form and color between it and this pink prim.  Both grandmothers grew the purple version, and the pink one came from my maternal grandmother's garden.  Mother grows patches of the pink prim in dry partial shade under a huge Betula occidentalis. They thrive.

My photos don't seem to turn out well enough to indicate flower details. I'm using an iPhone but suspect there are settings that would improve quality for this use.  Typically, the outcome is sharp and detailed.

[Sally]

Here's another photo of same Primula:

[David Nicholson]

I think Primula juliae and P. 'Wanda' will have become so mixed up over the years in both gardens and commercial horticulture that it is now quite difficult to tell them apart.

More information here:-
Barnhaven have a range of Juliana hybrids
https://www.barnhaven.com/juliana/wanda

An accurate description of P. juliae
http://encyclopaedia.alpinegardensociety.net/plants/Primula/juliae

A picture of true P. juliae from Craigiehall Nursery (I bought one last week   )
http://www.craigiehallnursery.co.uk/ourshop/prod_2065566-Primula-juliae.html

[Mike Ireland]

A couple of photos of the true Primula juliae which seems a little more delicate than the Wanda hybrids. Also a pink with yellow eyed wanda hybrid which was the first alpine I bought over 45 years ago from Bob Potterton, one he would have called "a good doer", he was right, it's the original plant, still going strong.

[Sally]

Thanks to all who have contributed information. I do believe it may be impossible to narrow it down after all these years. I have grown a lot of julies from Barnhaven seed (I'm a member of the American Primrose Society and they have a great seed exchange including seed from Barnhaven) and none look like my pink one. 'Kinlough Beauty' comes closest in flower color and form (multiple flowers on a stalk), but mine doesn't have a white stripe down each petal.  Whatever its name, it's a lovely plant blooming early and prolifically.

Sally
South of Lewiston, Idaho

[Alan_b]

There is an interesting article on primulas here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/11526942/How-the-primrose-can-adapt-to-suit-every-taste-and-garden.html .  According to Joe Sharman, hybrids of Primula juliae are more drought-tolerant than other primulas.  It certainly seems to be true that our native primulas die-out in my dry Cambridgeshire garden whilst some of the hybrids survive.   

[ian mcdonald]

Alan, do you have P. elatior in your area?

[Alan_b]

Yes, you can find primroses, cowslips and oxlips (P. eliator) in this area but they need a damper spot than my garden can provide.  In fact there are none (of any of these) in the verges around my village.

[Sally]

The Telegraph article was very interesting, Alan.  I certainly agree with the writer's statement regarding the lack of hardiness in the selections produced in the Pacific Northwest. A local greenhouse  grows primroses to wholesale. The flowers are large and in beautiful colors, but not very hardy for our situation at a higher elevation. They offered P. polyanthus is earlier years, probably 'Pacific Giant',but now the plants appear to be mostly P. acaulis. My mother and I search through the flats to find the few polyanthus plants, and they are worth having for even one season they are so beautiful.  Purists resist their overgrown flowers, but there's always room for a little flamboyance!

[ArdfearnAli]

The Primula Hallbarn Blue is a good blue colour with a hint of purple that flowers over a long time.  I will see if I can get a photo of it and post it on here. If I remember it starts low and then develops longer stalks as the flowering season goes on. I had a look at our wanda and it is deeper in colour and shorter stalks. As posted they have been around since 1900ish so may have been mixed up or perhaps hybridised over the years.

Alasdair

[David Nicholson]

.........................Our 'Wanda' flowers are not stalked; they look more like P. acaulis and this deep true pink version has flowers that are stalked like P. polyanthus.......................................

I noticed in her post that Sally referred to Primula acaulis. I've been growing some of the Primulas for some years now and it is only recently that I came across that name (in Barnhaven's Web Site) and had to look it up. Would it be true to say that growers in the UK perhaps don't recognise the name  and don't use it? My copy of John Richard's tome is out on loan at the moment and I can't check but I doubt if he made use of the name in his book.

[Maggi Young]

From  Richards' "Primula" page 108 - referring to P. vulgaris......
".... curiously, its scientific name is much less settled. Linnaeus' epithet acaulis first appears in a list without diagnosis or rank in Flora Anglica. This publication predates Hudson's vulgaris by nine years, but there is considerable dispute as to which rank Linnaeus considered it took.  As Linnaeus subsequently used acaulis only at varietal rank, current opinion suggests that it should not be considered to form the basionym for this species. Although this decision is now enshrined in Flora Europaea, this species is still usually  called P. acaulis in non-English-speaking areas.

  and in some English-speaking countries as well!