A bit later than usual, here are pictures from the previous year’s walk around the gardens. First the Primulas — in the Primula Dell, the Patrick Seymour Alpine Garden, and a few other places. And then pictures of other, arguably less impressive, plants. This year, having brought a second battery for the camera, I was also able to take pictures in the strangely Primula-free Kurimoto Japanese Garden. These will come at the end.

Primulas

Click the picture to enlarge and marvel at the lush, long hairs on this Primula polyneura, growing in the tufa bed in front of the gift shop, before you enter the garden. It is labelled Primula gerariifolia, a misspelling of geraniifolia. P geraniifolia is a close relative of P polyneura.

The question  every year is whether we will find signs of progress in the long-promised “programme … to increase the number of species of Primula in the Dell,” or whether the beds will still be full of old signs for long-vanished plants, signs that sometimes appear to identify other, “volunteer” plants,  often self-sown garden hybrids of Primula veris and Primula elatior.

Maybe next year (this year).

 

A couple of spectacularly successful hybrid Primula allionii, ‘Peardrop,’ and ‘Lismore Jewel.’ It will have taken many years for them to reach this size.

 

A poorly photographed polyanthus primrose. I spent most of the day using a camera set for an indoor Streptocarpus shoot.

 

Primula auricula. Another nice plant poorly photographed.  (Won’t make that mistake again.)

 

A Primula sieboldii cultivar slowly increases its territory.

 

A named hybrid auricula cultivar.

 

Primula chionantha ssp sinopurpurea. I take pictures of this plant every year. In fact, if you have looked at my previous tours of the DBG, very few of these plants will be new.

 

It’s not all Primulas in the Primula Dell. This is Pulsatilla tongkangensis (the sign says). Not a great picture, but I wanted to record the name so that I could look for seed.

 

Primula wulfeniana awaits the weeders. Finished flowers can be seen around the edges. Hope to see this tidied up and blooming next year

 

Auricula ‘Arundel Stripe,’ another plant that has appeared here before. This is a very hardy and vigorous auricula, a good one for the garden.

 

This picture is from 2011 but got missed when I posted that set. Putting it up now as a reminder to look for this plant next visit. It appears to be a small hybrid auricula. Maybe it has a name to go with that great cherry colour.

 

Before we leave the Dell, one more self-sown cowslip

 

Outside the Primula Dell, in the Sensory Garden, furry-leafed Primula matthioli.

 

Along the walkway between the alpine troughs and the crafters’ workshop, Primula cortusoides, a plant found naturalized in a few places around the DBG.

 

These next few pictures are from the Alpine Garden.

Double auricula Emily P is another long-established plant here and has reached an impressive size.

 

Primula auricula ssp bauhinii in full sun, massive and many years old.

 

Another sprawling old specimen. No sign to tell us what it might be. Perhaps a white form of Primula marginata.

P marginata flowers a little earlier than P auricula. Here is another marginata, in a less advantageous spot than the white one, and less vigorous. The little offsets would do well moved to the tufa garden or the alpine troughs.

 

We were too late to see flowers on this Primula glaucescens but it is a nice-looking plant nonetheless. I have a little two-year-old seedling of P glaucescens that may produce its first flowers this spring.

 

Primula latifolia, failing to attract my camera’s attention away from the gravel.

 

And another named Primula allionii hybrid, ‘Pink Ice.’

 

Other Alpines

to come