Habitat: limestone slopes
Soil: with humus amd grit
Height: 60 cm
Flowering: late spring and early summer
Width: 25 cm
The Crystallophlomis section (often referred to as Nivalid primulas) consists of plants with long, more or less narrow leaves, generally upright, usually with white or pale yellow farina underneath. Each plant may have several flower stems, with one, two or three whorls of flowers, pink, purple, white or cream. In winter they form robust resting buds at ground level, and in the wild these would be covered with snow for a long time. The long, occasionally hot summers and too-warm winters make some of these plants difficult to grow in Britain, but others are long-lived, good garden plants.
Primula chionantha SDR4426 could be either sub-species chionantha, with white flowers, or sinopurpurea, in which case the one or two whorls of flowers will be purple. It came from a relatively dry mountain area on limestone, previously barely explored botanically.
| Primula brevicula SDR4452 is related to the well-known Primula chionantha subsp. sinopurpurea, but is smaller, with narrow leaves. It can make a good clump quite quickly, and it can equally well disappear without warning. It should be kept cool, and not too wet in winter, and probably splitting the clumps would prevent loss. | |
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| Primula cf. chionantha may be either the white-flowered (sub-species chionantha) or the purple-flowered (sub-species sinopurpurea) form. One or two whorls of the flowers can be expected. | |
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| Primula chionantha subsp. chionantha is a robust plant 60 cm or more tall, with several whorls of white flowers. | |
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| Primula cf. chionantha SDR4847 is probably Primula chionantha, in its white or purple form, but it grew in a rather drier place than usual, over limestone. | |
| Primula chionantha subsp. sinopurpurea has one or two (occasionally three) whorls of lovely bright purple flowers, with a pale eye. It is one of the easiest to grow in this section, and we have had plants that have grown and flowered for many years in our garden. The clump of leaves are attractive in their own right, covered with farina, and holding fairly upright, making a cone through which the flower stems arise. | |
| Primula chionantha subsp. sinopurpurea SDR2747 usually has two whorls of rich purple flowers, although sometimes there may be a single whorl, and occasioanlly there can be three. It comes from a high alpine pasture at around 4000 m. | |
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| Primula chionantha subsp. sinopurpurea SDR4418 comes from a wild collection, and in such cases the colour is not entirely predictable. The colour of the capsule gives some guidance, so this is probably purple. | |
| Primula longipetiolata has been much confused with Primula limbata. Both have a distinctive broad band of farina (flour) along the under edge of each leaf, narrow when the leaves first emerge in spring, then broadening. The difference is that P. longipetiolata has a long petiole (the name says it all!) This leave stem is red, and about as long as the leaf blade, whereas in P. limbata the leaf tapers all the way to the base. Both have clusters of lovely soft purple (mauve) flowers on short stems. Plants soon form clumps of rosettes, and so far with us seem to be reasonably easy to keep. | |
| Primula macrophylla is a species found over a wide range along the Himalaya and beyond. The long leaves are mealy underneath, and the equally mealy stem has a single umbel of flowers, usually rich purple. The flat-faced flowers have angled petals, so that the overall shape is close to pentagonal. | |
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| Primula woodwardii is a small species, with typical narrow leaves, lightly dusted with farina on the upper side. The short flower stems a whorl of relatively large purple flowers. Rarely seen in cultivation since it was first introduced nearly 100 years ago. |