I have several perennial beds on my property, one of which is in the front yard. A big challenge, with this garden, is the timing of the plants’ blooming. I have a lot of flowers (chrysanthemum, perennial sunflower, and aster family plants) that bloom in late summer. But the rest of the year there have been occasional “gaps” when nothing is blooming.

One of these gaps falls in late April/early May. So last year I bought some primula veris — a non-hybrid primrose — and I’m very pleased with the effect.

The plants are 12-14 inches high, and the blooms have lasted for weeks — they first started to put out their bloom stalks the first week of April.

The size of the bloom clusters, their height, and the intensity of the color makes them visible from the street, which is part of the spec. They also work with the palette I’ve got going in this garden, which is primarily whites and yellows, deepening into some oranges/corals as accents.

I bought the primroses last spring from Evermay nursery in Maine, which specializes in primroses. I had a great experience with Evermay and highly recommend them.

In fact, one of the nicest things about the Internet is that small, specialty growers can reach a bigger mail order market. They get more customers. We get access to a wider variety of interesting plants.

I’ll post more when some of my other experiments bloom :-)