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I am very fond of Primula denticulata, so I went weak at the knees when I first saw the variegated form 'Karryann'. I first bought it from Bressingham Gardens
in the late 1970s or early 1980s. They introduced it, but I don't remember where it originated (just one of the delightful things I have forgotten over the subsequent decades). Their catalogue for 1981 says: "This is just a good light blue clone before the leaves develop, but from May to November, the leaves are very attractive, with a margined light yellow variegation." I grew it for a couple of years and them lost it - carelessness, distraction, the raging hormones of a young man - who can say why. One day I realised that I didn't have it any more and it didn't matter how hard I peered at the space where it should have been growing, it wasn't there. Decades passed and I continued to miss it but had resigned myself to the idea that it had slipped from cultivation, a transient vegetable spectre vanished into the mists of obscurity. The suddenly in 2016 it was listed by Bob Brown at Cotswold Garden Flowers. Callooh! Callay! ('Jaberwocky' by the way) and a bargain at £5.50. Once again I only kept it for a few years but I feel strangely fulfilled and it has nothing to do with those raging hormones. |
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| 9th September 2016 | ||