Winter Magic With Primulas

Use primulas to fill up your garden with abundant colour.

- Alice Spenser-Higgs

Primulas are winter’s most magical flowers. Their airy, lacy flowers are produced in such abundance that they fill a garden bed or border, creating drifts of colour in shades of lavender, rose, white or wine-red.

Not surprisingly, the open-pollinated Primula malacoides are also known as fairy primulas. Despite their delicate appearance, these are reliable, easy-growing and undemanding plants for light shade areas. For a spectacular effect, interplant them with spring-flowering bulbs that also like semi-shade, like daffodils or tulips.

There are some Primula malacoides hybrids that are more compact, with large dense flower clusters in darker pinks and purples, as well as a light pink and white as part of the mix.