Garden

[colleena]

Hi, know nothing about primroses except Fred Meyer has them out, they really are pretty but it's 18degrees out - are they something that survives in the winter?  

[Icegoddess]

They're perennials.  They're hardy in zones 4 to 8, but it gets too hot here in AL for them.  However, there may also be a houseplant primrose which may not be hardy, so you would need to be sure of what you're buying.

[drizzellla]

I bought several Primrose plants at my local grocery store on a whim. It had to be 30+ years ago. When I walk outside my front door. There are still purple with yellow flowers on the plants at the present time. I live in Pennsylvania. I also still have some pansies plants that were flowering.

We have had frost and some light snow. And the plants are still going strong.

I have been so happy with the plants that I bought many years ago. I bought about another dozen or more Primrose plants, 5 years ago. Bloomed the first year and never saw them again. Not sure what happened.

The local grocery store where I bought the original plants, went out of business in 2000. So I have no idea where they bought the plants. But glad I bought them when I did and regret not buying more.

[Desertdi]

[Lilysmom1]

@drizzellla The ones you bought that died were probably not hardy to your zone.  Does that make sense?  Or planted in conditions they could not survive.

I am in hardiness zone 6 (used to be 5b until climate change).  Mine survive winters well.

[drizzellla]

---

@Lilysmom1 wrote:

@drizzellla The ones you bought that died were probably not hardy to your zone.  Does that make sense?  Or planted in conditions they could not survive.

I am in hardiness zone 6 (used to be 5b until climate change).  Mine survive winters well.

---

I am 6B or 7A.

I already decided, my plan for the "flower spring planting". Last year for the first time in many years, my flower garden was a big success. I had bought my annuals from a local farmer. In years past I bought from big box stores with uneven success.

I do not remember seeing primrose at the local farmer's site. I had no trouble picking out nice looking plants. So I did not see all the selection he had. I had my cart full and knew I did not have space for more plants. But I am going to talk to him. 

It is nice to have primrose scattered about and flowering, when the annuals are no longer flowering.

[colleena]

@drizzellla  I agree, they look so pretty with their colors in between other flowers.  

I'm in the PNW so it says zones 7-9 so I just might have to get a few from Freddy's to try.  And like you our farmer's market has great selections during most of the year also.

[PA Mom-mom]

@colleena  I used to buy one at the grocery store each spring and put it on my kitchen table until it stopped flowering. Then I would hold it in a cool place until I could plant it out. They did very well for years in one of my beds until they were choked out by the lily of the valley and the winter aconites. (I'm in 6b) Love the colors!

[gardenman]

@drizzellla 

"In years past I bought from big box stores with uneven success." 

There's a reason for that and it's not anything you did. Commercial greenhouses tend to try to optimize their greenhouse space. An empty greenhouse isn't earning its keep but growing starter plants is a very seasonal business. What many/most do is start seedlings/cuttings whenever they have space and then hit them with a growth regulator and put them into cold storage where the plants go largely dormant until they're pulled back out. At this moment (mid-January,) most commercial greenhouses are focused on Easter plants.

Plants like begonias and petunias need a long growing season since they're started from teeny tiny little seeds. If the growers wait until after the Easter plants have left the greenhouses, it's too late to have flowering begonias and petunias for the springtime market. Things like marigolds can reach the market fairly quickly from seed, so they can be started after Easter.

There are seasons in a commercial greenhouse. In July-November, the greenhouses typically are focused on Christmas plants. Poinsettias and Christmas cacti. When those plants move out of the greenhouses in November, it's a bit too early to start Easter flowers, so they'll start the slower-growing annual seedlings and grow them in the greenhouse until it's time to start the Easter flowers. Then those annual seedlings will get sprayed with a growth regulator and plopped into a large refrigerator where they'll sit until there's room in the greenhouse for them again.

When space becomes available after the Easter flowers have left, the plants in cold storage come back out. Sometimes they start to grow again and shake off the growth inhibitor and sometimes they don't. They just stay restricted. When the bedding plants leave the greenhouses (end of April/ early May) then it's mum season for the greenhouses. And the mums will stay there until it's time to start the Christmas stuff.

Your local farmer who grows plants isn't doing all of the growth regulating, cold storage stuff. He's likely just starting with seeds or plugs that don't ever have their growth regulated, so you get better results. Some of the plants bought from box stores and grown commercially may have been given multiple doses of growth regulator and been into and out of cold storage on multiple occasions before getting to you. They can look good when you buy them but never grow. 

If you start your own seeds or buy from a local grower who doesn't do the "normal" stuff, you'll get the best results. 

[drizzellla]

Thanks, @gardenman for your explanation.

On the way down to the "shore" we pass a company that supplies plants to our local Lowe's.  I am sure they also supply plants to more than our local Lowe's. I often wondered what was going on in those buildings. Thanks for the explanation.

Yes, now that I found him, I am sticking to our local farmer. He has such a varied selection and the plants looked so nice all summer until the frost "got them".