Sibthorp primrose
This little beauty can be ignored no longer. It started coming into flower in early February, and every time I pass it, I think to myself what an absolute joy it is; not shouty but quite unmissable.
Despite its diminutive size – a scant ten centimetres high – it has proven robust, tolerant, and long lived, and over the summer months it disappears from sight underneath an umbrella of epimedium leaves: so much so that I forget it’s there and it’s almost a surprise to see the tiny new leaves emerging the following January. I’ve had it for years, the clump slowly increasing. I have read that it self-seeds but no such luck in our garden so this year I’m going to divide it after flowering.
This little primrose is native to south-eastern Europe, where the flower colour varies.
‘Subsp.’ means a sub-species of our own native primrose, and ‘sibthorpii’ refers to the eighteenth-century Oxford botanist in whose honour it was named.
Lucky I remembered its name, and lucky it’s tough, because we have a new puppy in the household, and she is not only drawn to the cheerful little blooms (just the right height!) but her favourite game in the
NB Louise has published a beautifully produced book of her plant profiles – A Plant for Each Week of the Year. It costs £9.99 and is for sale in our online shop here.
More NB If you’re not already a subscriber and you’d like a bit more gardening chitchat from the3growbags, please type your email address here and we’ll send you a new post every Saturday morning.
2 replies on “Primula vulgaris subsp. sibthorpii AGM”
‘Shouty’ is such a good way to put it. My garden has a very shouty, loud yellow primula, probably an ex pot plant, inherited from the previous resident. It is bounndingly healthy and has been flowering twice a year in the most prominent position in the garden. I have just exiled it to a spot down near the potting shed where it can shout away to its heart’s content.
Elizabeth I love that you couldn’t actually dispose of your ‘shouty’ primula – just put it on the naughty step! Gardeners find it hard to be cold-hearted, don’t they. It’s Caroline here and in the Scottish Highlands I can’t get enough of shouty plants at this time of year. If said primula would remain pert throughout our current minus-3s at night, I’d offer to adopt it! Very best wishes to you XXXX