Primroses...cheap...HERE WE GO, AGAIN!

[ducks4you]

Help! I did it again, bought 3 cheap Primroses from Aldi. I've tried for 3 years and killed them ALL!
I heard that they like it cool and wet and need to be divided. I KNOW that they are all 3 potbound. What is my next step.

 

[digitS']

Wow, primulas in January in Illinois!

They will be showing up here in another couple of months, Ducks. I always think that they are soooo early to be trying to tempt us into planting. I've also seen them frost-damaged while in the racks at the stores!

Maybe you should be thinking of putting them somewhere they can lie dormant for awhile. I've just bought them 2 or 3 weeks before last frost and set them out in the ground - treating them like a very hardy annual. No, they didn't survive 12 months to grow thru another season. Pansies aren't likely to survive for 12 months either.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh, I know what you mean Ducks, I love those little guys! You can keep them going indoors for quite awhile. They need bright light, cool temperatures and definitely don't keep the soil wet. They don't want to dry out either, so watering is probably the trickiest part.
They want to just be moist.
Also make sure you don't fertilize them when they are in bloom. I've planted them outside in the spring and have had a few survive the following winter, but I let them dry out too much one fall and that was the end of that.

I don't know about the division, it doesn't seem likely that they would need it. I think I wouldn't do it.
Plant them out in the spring and hopefully you'll see them bloom again in 2014!

 

[Smart Red]

I have a couple of colors (4?-3?) of primroses back in the shade garden. They've been there for about 12 years and are doing well . . . unless they didn't make it through last summer's drought.
They like cool and damp - not wet.

Love, Smart Red

 

[ducks4you]

I put them in front of my west facing basement window. I can see them when I exit the back door to feed all of my critters every day. The basement isn't heated, but it's comfortably cool, and the window has a storm window in front of it. Last time I tried them I put them in front of a west facing window in the bedroom above this, one the first floor. I bought about 12 of them, and the they ALL dropped off, like flies.
Is it watering a little, and often, with good drainage? Also, they look potbound. Should I repot them?

 

[thistlebloom]

They like humidity so you might want to put them on a tray with gravel in it, that you could keep some water in but not get the roots wet.
If they're pot bound you could repot them, it might dsirupt the blooming for a bit though.

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks! Don't care about distrupting the blooming. I'd just like to have them in my outside bed. I prefer flowers that want to grow and flower for me with a bare minimum of care, which is why I LOVE my knockout rose. I like the idea of the gravel bed.

 

[897tgigvib]

Don't plant Primroses deep. They like their crown above the soil.