Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Primula acaulis Germination

It's the last post of the year and I have some new seedlings! I am excited to see that my recently-sown Primula acaulis "Danova Rose-Lavender Shades" seeds have germinated.  I actually want to grow the more hardy Primula auricula, but have failed at that many times.  

I simply sowed these on the surface of the seed-starting mix in a small pot and placed the pot in a humidity dome for a few weeks. The dome sits on a heating mat, which provides bottom heat that some plants like.  Apparently these seeds like the heat too.
I spotted 4 seedlings among the mossy-perlite particles.  Hopefully I can raise these to be healthy little plants.  Although Primula acaulis is listed often as hardy to zone 4 or 5, I am going to try them out here in zone 1b.  Of course, we get a great deal of snow, which provides some winter protection.  Who knows what will happen?

Unfortunately, the snow doesn't keep our cars warm.  This is an issue in our house as RLM has decided against the remote-start feature on our next vehicle.  Maybe -33 degrees Celsius is NOT cold enough for him?  At least our chosen vehicle will have heated seats -- much like my seedlings have been enjoying for years!  

15 comments:

Cicero Sings said...

Ahh, the remote starter ... would have been nice! We have heated seats and they are nice. We have a Subaru Outback ... great in the snow ... very safe feeling.

New Life in the middle of winter IS exciting.

Have a great New Year with MANY happy times and LOTS of sprouts!!!

Anonymous said...

Where did you get your seeds? I love primula and I just might be able to get away with growing these if I pick a warm and sheltered spot.

I can sympathise with the cold vehicles. we had a couple weeks of unusual cold for December (it usually comes in Jan.) and my trooper husband was running the van for a bit before loading up the kids.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the seeds link!

Amy

RURAL said...

They are some of my favorite primula. And I have heard that they can be a little difficult to germinate. Glad to hear that you are having success.

Happy New Year, great to have met you through Blotanical!

Jen

O.I.M said...

happy new year. hope it is filled with many, many seedlings and happy garden tales.
Irena

Anonymous said...

Heated seats - we had them once and they were so good. I do not envy you those temperatures!
Happy New Year.

Kandace said...

Whatcha buying and when are you driving it to Edmonton?!

A warm humidity dome sounds nice right about now......

Parfum said...

Thanks for the information, everything posted on the internet is always incomplete and so confusing :P (sorry for posting on this thread I just can't find your contact info on your profile), do you remember when you germinated your Baobab? is there a certain month in which they should be germinated in order to ensure a falltime dormancy? Mine were germinated in March last year and the one that I have kept watering still seems to be perfectly green and growing vigourously, the one that I have purposely dried out has lost all its leaves at this point, but still seems to be alive? It hasn't been very long yet though, who knows Im probably killing it :( Thanks again for the info and great blog, I've read through the whole thing since yesterday :D

Barbarapc said...

I bet you'll be just fine with snow cover - ever since I saw a plant from the violet family (indoor variety) growing in Mr Cabot's Quebec Zone 2 garden - I think there needs to be a whole new Zone system for snow cover. So nice to see baby seedlings this time of year, isn't it?

Aiyana said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. I don't blame you for wanting to come to Arizona soon to get out of the all that snow. Your environment is way too cold for me! Better come before May--otherwise, it may be too hot for you!
Aiyana

Unknown said...

There's nothing more heartwarming than the side of new seedlings, is there? I hope these continue to thrive for you. Belated happy new year from the equally frozen shores of NS!

Yvonne said...

Ha, there they are. Congratulations. My husband used to grow these, and in fact, still has them in his shade rock garden. They are sweet plants.

Anonymous said...

That is the best thing, baby primulas, many congrats on getting them going. Although we are much warmer here in TN, zone 7, almost too warm actually for some, I yearn for the P. auricula. Heated seats ? Hooray, remoste starter, honey, that is a MUST HAVE! Time for some mind melding to get him to see the wisdom in that. :-)

Frances at Fairegarden

quu said...

Growing Auricula Primulas from a seed is a really slooooooow process.

2007 I tried and had few tiny plants, that actually were winter hardy. Last summer plants were still tiny. First bloom? Well maybe at 2009 spring, or not :D

kate smudges said...

I'm curious to see how this primula overwinters ~ mostly because I just bought a pot in bloom and am hoping to pop it into the garden once spring arrives.