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A knowledge of the natural habitat of these plants will increase your success with them in the garden. A cool soil with constant moisture under the light shade of deciduous trees is ideal. The use of various mulches will help to achieve this condition. Polyantha primroses are voracious feeders, and to produce show-quality umbels the plants must not lack for nourishment. A good medium loam, with thorough bottom drainage, liberally laced with well-rotted cow manure and side-dressed in early spring with a complete fertilizer will provide the necessary vigor. Never allow the plants to lack for water.

Under favorable conditions the plants will form numerous crowns, quickly depleting the soil. Vigorous plants should be divided every two or three years, immediately after flowering. At that time the plant should be lifted, soil shaken from the roots and the newly formed crowns severed or broken from the old rootstock. The existing roots are then completely removed by cutting with a sharp knife 2 inches below the rootstock. Reducing the roots will force the heavy anchor roots to break into many fine feeding roots. Lastly, old foliage is best trimmed to allow new leaves to form. The new divisions should be planted in well-enriched soil or a coldframe and kept constantly moist and shaded until roots form.

Plants in abundance may be raised from seed, which germinates readily in 14 to 21 days. To secure the strongest, heaviest-rooted seedlings, seed should be sown in a coldframe with shaded glass or a plastic cover. Such protection will prevent fatal surface-drying from wind before germination and conserve the necessary humidity. Seed may be sown as it ripens in June or July or held over until March for spring sowing. In cold climates seedlings are wintered in cold-frames or planted out and mulched with salt hay, old cow manure or peatmoss to prevent heaving.

Foliage should be maintained in a vigorous state throughout the growing season. Black spots, surrounded by a yellow area, may eventually cover the entire leaf, reducing the plant’s vitality. A combination spray of Bordeaux mixture with lead arsenate, applied during the season, especially in early spring, will control this bacterial leafspot and all chewing insects. Green aphids. red spider and two-spotted mite may be controlled with regular spraying of Isotox. Complete control against insects is the best insurance against several little known but deadly virus infections, since insects carry the virus from one plant to another.

An imaginative gardener will find many places in his garden suitable for planting polyantha primoses. Of course they are always pleasing when used as fillers for beds of spring-flowering bulbs. but they are also effective when massed in semishady locations with a background of fern fronds or broad-leaved evergreens. The gnarled branches of an old apple tree are complementary when to blossom and, afford cooling shade from the hot summer sun when the leaves have formed. If you are a patio gardener, pot several dozen polyanthus and group them with a suitable backdrop for a dramatic pictorial effect.

By D Gresham