Auricula primroses are the alpine cousins of our wild primroses. ‘They differ from regular primroses in that they have smooth fleshy leaves often covered with powder, to protect them from the intense solar radiation of the high mountains.’

Auricula’s and Primula-frondosa are offered by Sequim Rare plants The latter plant has been given an Award of Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society and has flowers some 15 mm. wide.  Primula Halleri would be very similar. That link belongs to another English seed source and shipping is expensive as it is with Thompson and Morgan or Barnhaven Primroses..

The other pink flowered rockery plant is Primula cusickiana (Cusick’s primrose) and this is about as alpine as you can get. It is native to the Mts. Of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. The link belongs to the North American Rock Garden Society Society which has a wealth of native plants, wildflowers and more.

The Primula auricular collage came from the most famous Primrose grower located in England. Barnhaven Primroses.  I used to buy all my seed from them and they do take bank cards and PayPal, but their shipping charge for one package of 35 seeds was over 5.00 dollars. I passed

Barnhaven categorizes them into five different groups but I feel Alpine Auriculas, Show Fancy Auriculas and the ever popular Double Forms sums it up. Care is relatively easy as long as they have good drainage, but in very cold or wet climates they might prefer to be overwintered in a cold greenhouse.

The primroses are wakening in the garden so I thought I would pass on some lesser used species and links to the suppliers. I would also add a great Primrose/alpine blog from Edmonton Alberta. The picture above came from his seed sales on eBay. I just bought some of his seed on eBay and they really should be sowed in March rather than now. I you have heat mats that is no matter

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As it turned out, Barnhaven had  only three available seed sets for sale and for American buyers Sequim Rare Plants does not list that name although I can verify that what he has is scrumptious.

Mind you I live in the US and we need phytosanitary certificates on all bulb and live plant imports be they from England, Canada or S. Africa. These can cost up to 60.00 to obtain, so buying locally is the way to go.Otherwise go with SEEDS.  My recommendation is the American Primrose Society and I am sure Europe has one too. They gave some good seed sources both here and abroad.  Same for the North American Rock Garden Society.
(C) Herbert Senft 2015

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