Primula x hybrida Elizabeth Killelay

The Primula 'Elizabeth Killelay' is a vigorous and unusual hybrid primrose that will make a sensation in containers and borders from March onwards, due to its very double flowers with original and beautifully contrasting colours. This variety produces bouquets of flowers with multiple petals in a deep reddish-brown, finely edged with cream-white and gathered around a golden yellow heart; a colour highlighted by large, light green, embossed leaves. This small and hardy perennial is easy to grow in moist soil, in borders, damp rockeries, planted in humus-rich and moist soil, in gentle sunlight, in partial or even full shade.

The Primula 'Elizabeth Killelay' is a spontaneous hybrid, resulting from the cross-breeding of a yellow P. polyantha and a ruby red hybrid primrose. It was discovered in Hazel Bolton's garden in the United Kingdom, growing vigorously despite receiving little care and without protection against herbivores. Primroses belong to the primulaceae family.

The beautiful foliage of 'Elizabeth Killelay' develops in dense rosettes, emerging from the underground rootstock to form a slowly spreading carpet. The leaves, mostly evergreen, are 8 to 12 cm (3 to 5in) long and 3 to 6 cm (1 to 2in) wide, embossed and velvety, with a tender green colour. From March to May, short flowering stems of 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8in) tall appear, bearing clusters of 3 to 8 beautiful turbinate flowers with numerous imbricate petals, in shades of brown nuanced with burgundy, bordered with cream-white. The flower's heart is golden yellow. This flowering is also slightly fragrant.

The 'Elizabeth Killelay' primrose will particularly thrive in humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil, conditions that can be found in damp rockeries or rocky areas bordering a small waterfall. In borders or containers on a balcony, this plant pairs well with white-coloured companions; pansies, violets, hostas, forget-me-nots, peonies, or creeping bugleweeds. Primroses are perfect in borders, low flowerbeds under leafy cover, rockeries, and short grass meadows, among snowdrops and violets.

The primroses in our gardens are almost all perennials, sometimes annuals, rarely shrubs. Their cultivation can be either very easy or very difficult. Often, the climate is a determining factor for their survival; some species die if the summer temperature is too high, others if the winter is too humid or too cold, etc. It is a complex genus that we have been cultivating for 25 years, but to understand the very different ways of living of all the rare species, one must spend a lot of time with them and know that they forgive no mistakes. The ones in this catalog do not all present the same degree of difficulty, but they can all be cultivated by a careful amateur. Some are easy to grow, others less so... it's up to you to choose the ones you think you can master in cultivation!