Not sure what is going on by my 4 year old cowslip is just started to look very poorly. It has not done any selfseeding and seems to be on its last legs. Is this the normal span for one? It has never really died back since I got it so it might just burnt it self out.
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Mike's right about there being some temperamental primulas but cowslips don't give a lot of trouble. They're natives and used to our climate. What sort of soil have you got?
In the sticks near Peterborough
Mine has never fully died down and tends to start flowering again in the autumn. My soil is not too heavy (I have no clue to be honest). It is a built up border that was put in before I moved in so might just be garden compost. Have planted a yellow and a red one in a different part of the garden and hope they do better. I suspect it has just run out of steam. My plan was to get it to cross with the native primroses and primulas next to it which seems to do well (and die down)
I thought it was a native cowslip we were discussing
In the sticks near Peterborough
It is. There is a red (ok orangy red) variety of it. We used to have the red ones growing amongst the yellow ones at my mother summerhouse in Sweden (they are probably there but I haven't been at the right time of year for years) I think it is a natural mutation rather than a new hybrid as we have had them in Sweden naturally for decades.
If that's what Swedboy wants to call it, then it's a cowslip.
Swedboy, do you have a photo?
The yellow type I have http://whisperingearth.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/cowslip.jpg
red type https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3212/4554645585_4a1021edc0_z.jpg
This is to my knowledge a native cowslip (Primula Veris) and the other is a red variety of it.
They're definitely false oxlip type hybrids from someones garden. They could well come true from seed if a small population had become established and the true oxlip is a parent but they're not pure cowslips, Primula veris. They could even be Primula vulgaris x veris type, again the p.vulgaris type coming from someones garden. If that's the case then it's likely to be sterile. The size of the flower tells you it's not a cowslip, that is P. veris though the red spots tell you it's a hybrid. A very lovely one though. I've got a few P. ve. x P. vu. and they are very similar in morphology to that. If they're still in flower I'll get a photo. I don't know why it died, though. Could be a whole host of reasons.
I've got vulgaris/veris crosses. Most of them are too big and 'cultivated' in appearance for the wild parts of the garden where they grow.
and you're right Jim, if they have a common name it might as well be cowslip
In the sticks near Peterborough
Only two left, the top one is a hybrid, false oxlip and the bottom is a cowslip, P. veris.
comparing these makes me think yours is a Cowslip x 'Oxlip type' hybrid. Sorry, Oxlip is P. elatior. See photos on this page, not read the text.
By, the way, not all reports say P. veris x vulgaris is sterile. But it isn't easy to tell the P.veris x oxlip type hybrid apart from the P.veris x vulgaris hybrid.
The hybrids I have are only in the front and were due to my stupidity, I removed the seed beds and scattered them in some grass on the other side (so they're all still small), not thinking for a second they'd have hybridised. There's one down in the entrance to the meadows which is huge in comparison the species. That's hybrid vigour for you.
That reminds me. I bought seeds of Geranium sanguineum lancastriense from Chiltern seeds, not one of them came through pink, all red. They told me, " you need to understand that they're all open pollinated." So I said, "well you need to understand that your description said Geranium sanguineum lancastriense and if they're open pollinated then they can't be Geranium sanguineum lancastriense so I'd like a refund thanks. I got one.