Monday, February 25, 2013

A New Irish primrose for The Whitehouse garden.


Primula Moneygall
 Spring is in the air and some of the more brave wild Irish primroses are peeping through their winter foliage.

On St.Patricks Day 2013 a new primrose will herald springtime in Washington. A special Irish primrose has been named in honour of the maternal ancestral village of USA President Barack Obama. The first plants of the primrose named Primula Moneygall are already growing locally in USA and now waiting for their introduction to the Whitehouse garden. This new Irish primrose variety will be gifted to President and Mrs Obama during their state visit by An Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Mr Enda Kenny and Mrs Fionnuala Kenny on St.Patricks Day 2013.

For millennia in Ireland flowering of the wild primrose has been one of the first natural signs of progression from winter to spring. The humble primrose has given rise to positive and varied primrose folklore. As my old secondary school motto says Hiems Transit (winter has passed) the native primrose gives natures silent testament to this fact.

Primula Moneygall has similar flower colour and habit as our native Irish primrose.‘Moneygall’ along with a number of new Irish primroses now available worldwide has been raised from old Irish varieties through many years of conservation, breeding and selection work by Joe Kennedy and Pat FitzGerald. Primula Moneygall with its natural simplicity and profuse combination of single, poly and hose-in-hose flower formations is a natural Spring treat in garden containers, borders or other planting situations. The Moneygall Primrose is ideal for mass planting in garden, park, village or town planting schemes. This new primrose variety can be planted in Autumn or Spring and will compliment spring flowering bulbs such as crocus and snowdrop.

We hope this selected variety heralds a new spring for us all in 2013 and enhances the joys of spring in the Whitehouse garden for generations to come. Primula Moneygall will be available as an addition to the current range of Irish primroses from Autumn 2013.


Kennedy Irish Primrose display at
Arboretum Garden Center
 Check for the Kennedy Primrose range in your local garden center now they are truly unique.

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