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Talkback: Growing primulas

Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
I'm with you there, Adam. I love primroses and primulas and have hundreds in my garden. This week I have been dividing up the big clumps of things like Primula Wanda which was in the garden when I came. 47years ago, and is still going strong. The secret is to keep dividing and give them good soil. I pot up plugs of the double primroses in the autumn and plant them out for the winter. They are beautiful now and, as it was a mixture, I am forever finding treasures like toffee-coloured ones and a pure white. The cowslips, Primula veris, are showing buds as well and soon there will be oxslips, Primula elatior, and later the taller ones like Primula sinensis. I have so many of the family that it is no wonder I keep finding sports like the year when I had a primrose with twenty petals on one flower and only two stems fused! As for the sparrows - primula leaves are attractive food for a tiny insect which makes pinholes in them so perhaps your birds are after those?
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  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    i have bought some begonia bulbs today but am unsure how to plant them in pots someone help please
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Plant begonia tubers in trays first and then pot on into small containers whe shoots appear. Hope this helps kb.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I have clumps of primula vulgaris, this year alot of them have come up a pale boring pink colour. Any idea what has gone wrong?
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    What a treat to see Monty Don back
    on our screens tonight, the rest of
    the team seem to gell together much
    better when he is with them.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Watching G.W. last night was like a breath of fresh air. Well done Monty - when you had your stroke and had to take the break I actually wrote in to wish you well and I did suggest that it would be great if you could return if you felt up to it and run the programme from your own garden (as Carol and Joe - with his allotment have sucesfully have done)has the BBC had the same suggestion from others !!! I do think that Toby is an enjoyable watch but I did feel that last season was very contrived and the younger end of the possible gardeners are not sitting in on a Friday night watching it. Good luck I will be watching again and again. Glad that you are feeling uo to it again xx
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I agree wholeheartedly with the last comments. The programme seems to have regained a cohesion and a 'grownupness'. I love Monty's presentation style and the passion he has for his garden comes over brilliantly - it makes me want to rush out into my own. I wish Toby well and hope to see him back on our screens as he has a lot to offer and was not helped by a rather patronising production team - well, that's how it seemed to me!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    By the way, any advice on which type of Amelanchier to chose for a north facing border, three feet from my neighbour's fence. I've had an old, ivy covered lilac tree removed - painful but in a small garden two week's flower is not enough to earn its keep - and would love to replace it with an Amelanchier.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Last year Carol Klien wrote an article in one of the magazines about her love of Japanese flowering Cherries. She recommended one that was suitable for growing in a container. The magazine also listed were to buy. Can anyone help me.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I bought my primulas last autumn and the dreadful winter we have had has killed them all off. So I will be following your example next year Adam and buying them in February.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I am totally confused about the different fertilisers on my garden centres shelves and my limited knowledge as to what where and when.
    I am told I need one kind in the spring one in the summer and one in the autumn, it would seem every plant needs a different feed, any idea as to one that does everything or am I asking too much ?
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