This lovely Zebra Primrose is one of the cold hardy slug tolerant English primroses.
Courtesy photo
The recent cold snap aside, the second week of March is when we should be able to enjoy primroses blooming on the pathway. Cool, wet weather makes primroses, ferns, sweet peas (plant them now) and slugs very happy.
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This is a great time to visit a local nursery and fill a cart with these early spring bloomers. You don’t even have to dig and plant the dwarf daffodils, potted primrose or early spring pansies you buy in 4-inch pots. Just nestle them all together in a basket or porch pot and hide their plastic pots with a mulch of moss, wine corks, or small rocks.
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These early spring bloomers will be fine in their nursery pots for a few months, as long as you remember to water often. Then, when summer annuals become available in May, you can transplant these frost-tolerant bloomers into your landscape and redesign your pots and planters for summer color.
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Q. I saw you hosting “Container Wars” at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show. You held up a pot of primroses that you said were slug proof. Can you please share the name of that primrose again? — G.S., Seattle
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A. You get what you pay for when it comes to promises for a primrose pretty garden. The slug-resistant (no primrose is slug proof) primroses I showed are also called English primroses and they have a thicker, more nibble-proof leaf and lower growing flowers. Some of the English primroses have unusual striped or double forms.
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There are hundreds of cultivars waiting at local nurseries and you’ll know you found the real deal when the price is more than double what you would pay for one of the brightly colored polyantha primroses you see blooming in front of grocery and home center stores now. Nothing wrong with the inexpensive primroses except that they attract slimy critters and don’t return reliably year after year like the hardy English primrose.
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The cultivar names of these hardy English Primroses include Coco Purple (petals edged with white) and Zebra (a variety with purple and white striped petals). Check my Facebook and Instagram posts for photos of these and other new spring plants.
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Free online class
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Marianne Binetti will present a free online class called “Color, Color, Color: Year-round Color without the Water Worries” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 21. Sign up at “Cascade Gardener presents Marianne Binetti” at brownpapertickets.com. This is a webinar so gardeners view the live class from their home computers or other devices. Once you sign up, a link will be emailed to you. Then just click the link at class time to join the live class.
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Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of several books. Reach her at binettigarden.com.
