Primula Cream Orange Eye - Oxlip

Primula elatior 'Cream Orange Eye' is a new hardy variety of primrose with a compact habit and abundant spring flowering. It produces numerous flower stalks adorned with clusters of beautiful bicoloured flowers, in cream with an orange centre. This is a small robust and easy-to-grow perennial or biennial plant that can be placed near a pathway to fully enjoy its flowers. It will bring life to flower beds and partially shaded borders from the first warm days.

Primula elatior, also known as Oxlip, is a herbaceous perennial plant that belongs to our native flora and is commonly found in the dappled shade of clearings or at the edge of forests. When abundant, this species is an indicator of ancient forests that have been relatively undisturbed by human activity.

By hybridising with the Common Primrose (Primula vulgaris), this plant has produced many short-lived perennial hybrids, often grown as biennial plants. This 'Cream Orange Eye' primrose blooms in April-May, depending on the climate, sometimes as early as March if protected from the cold in a greenhouse. Very pale with a wide light orange throat, surrounding a small golden-yellow centre. Their colour is enhanced by evergreen foliage in rosettes of large, deeply veined dark green leaves, ornamental even outside of the flowering period.

Elatior primroses are less well known than stemless primroses, but they have their own advantages: they are taller, hardier and more long-lived, and their flowering is also more spectacular. They make excellent companions for shade-loving and cool, partially shaded perennials such as heucheras, Brunnera, forget-me-nots, horned violets, and hostas. They can also be used to decorate the terrace, window, or balcony, planted in containers that will brighten up spring scenes. They also hold up very well in a simple bouquet, mixed with forget-me-nots or early tulips.