Well, that is the dream maybe! You may remember that I was thinking of having the sides of the ditch by the woodland covered with primroses, well, I have been looking around the garden to see how many seedlings I could find.
This is the south facing bank which is next to the back garden, I can see plenty of spaces that could be filled with primroses.
The woodland is quite a few feet lower than the back garden, so the north facing bank is only half the height of the other, but there is still plenty of room for more primroses.
Quite a cluster of seedlings were found in the woodland.
I found this cluster of seedlings in the front garden.
And a few were even growing in the gravel drive, I’m sure they would like to be moved to some nice leaf-mouldy soil!
I’ll share with you some of the lovely wild primroses that are growing in the garden. These are in the front border, the bee and butterfly border in the summer, and are growing amongst all the red stemmed Cornus that provide winter interest until they are coppiced.
This is the view that greets me at the moment when drawing back the curtains in the bedroom each morning.
I think all my other photos of primroses are of them flowering in the woodland.
Wild primroses in the foreground but false oxlips in the background where they have crossed with the one cowslip that is there, you can just see it at the top of the photo, a darker yellow!
As well as the primroses, the hellebores, leucojum and narcissus are flowering together.
It’s nice to know that there is something to follow on from all the snowdrops!
But who has been nipping all the primrose flowers off?! Is it “you know who”? Is he having these instead of the fritillaries, or is it the sparrows?
My rusty pheasant is doing a great job, as the real one has only been in the garden a couple of times lately, yesterday with a female, but she was very camera shy and beat a hasty retreat!
I have to admit, the real pheasant is very dainty in the way he tip-toes through the borders, maybe if I surrounded the fritillaries with a barrier of false oxlips, he might leave the fritillaries alone. All the grassy leaves on the left of the photo are the fritillaries, lots of buds almost ready to open. There are a couple open at the moment, but I will wait a little longer before I start photographing them.
The colour in the woodland has changed from all the white of the snowdrops and is now pale yellow with the primroses and narcissus. I like the way different colours come and go in waves across the woodland floor. Nature is wonderful in that all this goes on, plants frantically growing, flowering and setting seed before the leaves come on the ancient trees making it quite dark in here, until autumn time when we get the autumn tints and the leaves fall once more, adding nourishment to all the small plants under their canopy.
Clustering the primroses on the bank is a brilliant idea. Will you move all the plants in a clump or only a few? It’s looking a lot like Easter in your garden!
I will move the whole clump Marian, but then divide them, which is easy when they have the soil washed away. If I plant the ones that I have at the top of the banks, then they should seed downhill – that’s the theory anyway, I just hope it works!
Hi Pauline, I love the way you have planted out the garden so it changes colours over the year. Your plants are obviously ideally suited to their environment.
It took me a few years after moving here Catmint, to find out which plants really love my heavy damp clay! Now that I have it sorted, I am beginning to make the drifts that I always hoped for. Go with the soil you are given is my motto!
Hi Pauline, You’ve done a great job! Your woodland garden is wonderful. So many Primrose! I’ve never seen them planted in such number before…..they’re striking!
Thanks Sally, but they did it almost all by themselves! I started out with just a couple of plants and they have done the rest by seeding everywhere.
Hi Pauline,
Lovely primroses, I lost mine even though they were very nice, large groups. And I’ve had difficulty getting more natives – admittedly I haven’t been to any specialist nurseries – but in the future, maybe I’ll get some. I’m beginning to think they’re not a fan of my heavy clay as I also lost a few bulleyanas I planted a couple of years ago (which were meant for my mum as I’d intended to leave them to mature and divide any babies to give to her).
Liz, I’m on heavy clay, but each time I plant anything the soil round about gets improved. Although thinking about it, where they grow on banks in the lane, the soil isn’t improved, so I think maybe they like it. P. bulleyana likes it quite moist , I have them growing in the bog garden where we have the underground stream, maybe yours didn’t have enough water?
That really is a lovely view to look out at every morning. Your woodland is wonderful!
We enjoy it too Cathy, it changes so much with all the different flowers.
Oh yes, nature is indeed wonderfully clever!How lovely the woodland is looking, just when a flower fix is needed. I love primroses and yours are seedling beautifully. What a picture perfect view from your window!xxx
It’s nice Dina, when you can leave it up to nature to carpet the soil with more plants, I’m all for getting freebies! I’m encouraging more plants to seed about, the bees certainly appreciate them and I can hear a lot of buzzing whenever I visit the woodland.
Woodland ephemeral plants are such a delight and the views you shared of your butter cream nee white woodland floor are beautiful. The bank will look splendid covered in primroses!
I think woodland plants are my favourite Peter, over the years that we have been here, I get so much pleasure from that area.
A very good idea, to plant all primroses at one place. It looks very good.
Sigrun
It will certainly bring a splash of pale yellow to that area Sigrun and make the banks of the ditch more beautiful.
You have done a wonderful job with your woodland Pauline, I would say it was my favourite part of your garden, but then you show me the rest and I love it all. I do agree about going with the conditions, soil you have; in the end that is far more rewarding than fighting to keep unhappy plants alive. Clever to plant at the top and hope they will seed down the slope.
The woodland is my favourite part of the garden Christina, followed a close second by the bog garden. Thank goodness the first gardening book I bought when I was down here was Beth Chattos “A Green Tapestry” this is where she first mentioned “right plant in the right place” and since reading it my plants have all looked happy!
It depends how many seedling primroses I manage to dig up, I think I will need at least 40 just for the tops of the slopes, if there are any more then they can be planted further down, but I think finding 40 might be a bit ambitious!
It does seem to have been a good year for primroses. I’ve got some lovely clumps now and all from just 6 tiny plants I bought a few years ago. I love the idea of a whole bank covered in them. It’s surprising how quickly they spread.
It’s wonderful Louise, how primroses spread themselves without any help from us, they’re the sort of plants that I like! Covering my bank with them is a case of the garden and me imitating nature, as the banks along the roadside are a picture at the moment.
What a fantastic sight to meet your eyes, every morning when you open your eyes. Pretty much heaven! So many lovely primroses!
Thanks Jane, I look forward so much to my morning wander theses days, there is always something new to find.
I’ve been looking forward to catching up with your gorgeous woodland Pauline. I’ve somehow fallen off the email subscription, so must sign up again, I mustn’t miss the fritillaries blooming, though the primroses are a gorgeous sight too. I have baby clumps just starting to be large enough to spot from the kitchen window, so cheering on a drab grey day, I can’t get enough of them. A slope full of them sounds divine.
The fritillaries are just opening now Janet, you haven’t missed them. I think Mr Pheasant has been taking a bite out of the narcissus and primroses this year, anything near a path has a huge chunk missing! It’s wonderful that primroses are so generous with their seed, I’m so glad that you are able to enjoy yours from the house, as you say, they certainly brighten up a dull day!
What a glorious sight in the morning! This time if the year is so good after the dormancy if winter.
The primroses do seem to be very accommodating, don’t they? They look wonderful through your woodland but like you, mine seem to love gravel as a growing medium. I’m trying to establish some on a sunny bank too- so far so good.
The waves of colour through the Spring are just so rewarding, aren’t they? I know I will never achieve anything as good as unaided Nature can when it comes to border planning.
I love this time of year Judith, something new opening every day makes a morning wander essential. Primroses seem to like our soil, thank goodness, it took me some time to realise that I had to go with what was happy in our soil, since then I have begun to have drifts of my favourite flowers.
I think we can only try to imitate nature in our gardens and hope that she lends a helping hand!
There is nothing prettier than a bank of primroses. I have noticed that they always seed enthusiastically into the gravel path, but then most things do. I think I am going to have to look out for a pheasant like yours. My pheasants are on the prowl at the moment, biting off fritillary and primrose heads and tossing them aside. They are quite unimpressed when I shout at them.
It is so frustrating when the pheasant just rips the flower heads off Chloris, leaving them on the ground, the least they could do is eat them! The male pheasant here takes quite a bit of chasing, he seems to think that I’m going to feed him!
I can’t believe how far along everything has come, and I’m quite envious of your wealth of primroses! I have a total of three, with two indoors until the weather warms. They just don’t like our hot, dry summers….
Spring is racing away here Frank, I just wish I could press a pause button! The primroses get better and better each year, to get them to seed about, you need male and female plants. I remember way back in the mists of time, when I was at school, learning about “thrum” eyed and “pin” eyed primroses!
They do like to self seed all over the place here in our garden. But are also a welcome splash of colour this time of year. Your woodland garden does look lovely, we have quite a bit of shade here, as well, so I like to look at yours and see if there are any ideas I can steal 🙂 on another note, the meconopsis are looking very good this year, can’t wait for them to flower.
We are so lucky to have our little bit of woodland with ancient trees forming the canopy Helle, When we bought the house 25 yrs ago, little did I realise how important this area was to become to me. Thanks to reading books about woodland gardening, the planting is now becoming what I first visualised years ago.
How wonderful to hear about your meconopsis, mine are the opposite, a disaster! Only one has survived the winter and only a dozen seeds have germinated so I will be hard pushed to have any flowers this year, I’ll just have to look at my photos from previous years!
Oh so sorry to hear about your meconopsis. Gardening is a funny old lark sometimes, isn’t it. Why do some plants do well one year and not the other. Why do seeds germinate well one year and hardly at all the next.
Well, at least your fritillaries looks great.
I spoke too soon about the meconopsis seeds Helle, another dozen have popped up so I’m hoping that I will have a decent number of plants by next year. This year I will just have to be patient!
Pheasant and all your garden is looking lovely. It must be so nice to look out your bedroom window to the view of the arbor every morning. Happy Easter Pauline!
It is nice to look out of the window towards the woodland Jennifer, better though to take a little walk and be among the flowers!
Happy Easter to you and yours, hope you have a great weekend!
My primroses are much better this year than last, and I seem to have two distinct types – the ones that were bought as native primroses did not appear last year, whereas those from my Mum’s garden and nearby continued as normal so I guess they are much hardier. Good luck with carpeting the bank!
I think this has been a really good year for primroses Cathy, they are everywhere in the garden and in the banks along the lanes, they look so pretty. I think I will pot up any seedlings that I dig up, then plant them in the autumn when the rain can water them much better than I can!
Oh good luck with your primrose expansion plan Pauline. They are quite beautiful flowers. We spent a couple of days or so in our caravan at the start of the month where the site is full of wild primroses and daffodils. We even have our own little patches which we can view from the bedroom window and from the front door 🙂
Thanks Anna, they are such beautiful flowers, I don’t think you can have too many! Your caravan site sounds delightful, I’m sure you had a wonderful time!