Primula cultivar - which name please ?

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

Knows maybe anybody the name of this Primula cultivar ?
I have it received before many years from a friend as gift and I would like to buy more plants of group ( other colors ) - I suppose it is a hybrid ....

Thank you in advance
Hans

[Martin Baxendale]

It looks like Primula x pruhonica 'Wanda', an old P. juliae hybrid that's now surprisingly difficult to find true to name. (I think x pruhonica is the current name for these juliae hybrids - they used to be called just juliae hybrids).

[Martin Baxendale]

It looks like Primula x pruhonica 'Wanda', an old P. juliae hybrid that's now surprisingly difficult to find true to name. (I think x pruhonica is the current name for these juliae hybrids - they used to be called just juliae hybrids).

Sorry, just remembered the old name was juliana primroses, reflecting their juliae parentage.

[Hans J]

Martin ,

many thanks for this very good information 
...now it is much easier with searching ....

Do you know other colors of this breeding ?

Knows anybody sources for this plants ? ( maybe in Germany ? )

[Lesley Cox]

I agree, 'Wanda.' There are/were many others in the group of hybrids, such as 'Ideal,' 'Jill,' 'Iris Mainwairing,' 'Betty Green' and others, including a German-named group starting with 'Schnee...' One of these called (in English) 'Snow White' is still aound but you'd be hard put to find many others nowadays. A great shame as they were beautiful plants, very free-flowering and reliable, in jewel-like colours. A known source would be very welcome indeed.

[Hans J]

Hi Lesley ,

Thank you for your informations .
I it in meantime realized it is really difficould to find those plants in nurseries .....

The german cultivar name is : Schneewittchen ..it is difficould to translate ....

[Regelian]

Hans,

I picked up the same cultivar at the week market.  In the Cologne area you do see them offered by many garden centres and market sellers at this time of the year.  Maybe the Ahrends Nursery in Rondorf (near Wuppertal) still has some.  They still have most of his Astilbe intros.

I'm always amazed at the strange plants I occaisionally find at the markets.  Apparently, there are still a few smaller producers that offer classics.  You just have to be lucky, as they are only sold when blooming.

[Rodger Whitlock]

I agree, 'Wanda.' There are/were many others in the group of hybrids, such as 'Ideal,' 'Jill,' 'Iris Mainwairing,' 'Betty Green' and others, including a German-named group starting with 'Schnee...' One of these called (in English) 'Snow White' is still aound but you'd be hard put to find many others nowadays. A great shame as they were beautiful plants, very free-flowering and reliable, in jewel-like colours. A known source would be very welcome indeed.

The famous Ahrends series includes Schneesturm, Schneetreiben, Schneekissen, Schneeweiss (Lesley's Snow White), amd Schneewittchen. There is a complete list of them in the AGS book "Primulas of Europe and the Americas".

The plant for which an id was requested may be 'Wanda' but there are other cultivars scarcely different from Wanda. The late Roy Davidson of Seattle once told me that when he ran a commercial nursery (in the 1950s, iirc), they had a Wanda-like seedling turn up of good constitution. It was bulked up and tens of thousands of plants of it sold. As a result, in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Washington state, and Oregon), what looks like Wanda may not be Wanda at all.

Life being what it is, I wouldn't be at all surprised if much the same has happened elsewhere.

I am not aware that the original Wanda was described in sufficient detail to distinguish it from later pretenders to the name, however. Possibly horticultural periodicals from the time of Wanda's introduction have b/w photographs that would permit some separation of the sheep from the goats.

Other notable cultivars assignable to P. × pruhoniciana include 'Allure', 'Springtime', 'Julie Jack' (aka 'Jay-jay', a jack-in-the-green form), and these days at least one seed strain well-beloved of nurserymen for its large flowers in the brightest of colors. Some of these have blood from various Garryarde cultivars and show this in their bronze foliage.

At one time there was an orange P. × pruhoniciana, 'E. R. Janes', but as with most of the Schnee cultivars, there's no visible sign of it these days.

As I've said before, most of these juliana primroses have a defect: they have lost the daintiness of the true P. juliae in favor of large, if not overblown, flowers. The Ahrends Schnee series is an exception, as are 'Lady Greer' and 'Dorothy' with their small flowers in a polyanthus type of inflorescence.

[Regelian]

Roger,

Schneewitchen is translated as Snow White,  while Schneeweiß is White Snow (if it was ever offered).  Schneewitchen is the fairytale character.  I wonder if there was some confusion, as the names are very similar when translated.  Where any distinguishing features listed with the registration?

[Lvandelft]

Schneewittchen is for sure the same as Snow White( or Snowwhite).
Schneeriesin (not listed above by Rodger) is still existing in Germany, as well as Schneewittchen.

[Jo]

Hi all ,

Knows maybe anybody the name of this Primula cultivar ?
I have it received before many years from a friend as gift and I would like to buy more plants of group ( other colors ) - I suppose it is a hybrid ....

Thank you in advance
Hans

Hi Hans,

I grow some of the little primroses including a wanda type which I think may be called 'Tawny Port', a white which has one of those 'Schnee...' names but I can't find the label, and also some garden centre ones with bronze foliage.

I plant these GC ones alone then if they do well and look good I build up a little patch, like this yellow.
'Dawn Ansell' does really well and looks good when the flowers are new. And I also like some of the seedlings which turn up self sown.

Birds pecking off the flowers is a problem, they throw them  around like confetti.  Also slugs love the flowers.

[Hans J]

Hi ,

many thanks to all for this informations - it is a really great forum with many help !

Today I have received a parcel with some of this Primula from a german nursery :
Primula 'Helge' ( yellow )
Primula pink
Primula 'Schneewittchen'

Best wishes
Hans

[Lesley Cox]

Oh yes, 'E R Janes.' I'd forgotten about that one. At least 30 years since I grew it. 'Tawny Port' is/was one of the Garyade forms. Irish origin I think and I can't remember whether there should by one or 2 rs. There was some discussion on this in a thread sometime last year or before.

[Maggi Young]

Oh yes, 'E R Janes.' I'd forgotten about that one. At least 30 years since I grew it. 'Tawny Port' is/was one of the Garyade forms. Irish origin I think and I can't remember whether there should by one or 2 rs. There was some discussion on this in a thread sometime last year or before.

 I think Garryarde is correct , though the RHS PlantFinder can show Garryarde and Garryard   
It was last discussed almost exactly one year ago.... http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1330.120

[Lesley Cox]

Well I thought so too Maggi but then I seemed to remember Paddy or someone in Ireland saying it had only one, for the place/family/whatever after which it was named. But you know my memory. It comes up with all sorts of things nowadays that never happened at all.