Irish Primrose Trials

Irish Primrose Garden Trials.

Primula Avondale

Spring has come very late in 2013 and indeed not fully arrived even yet. Our new primroses have weathered this most unusual and unprecedented cold March.  Having been hit by sleet, snow, frost and continuous dry cold winds they are looking very perky indeed. Leaf colour on the dark leaved forms in fact is far better in cold conditions like we have now.  The most interesting thing evolving that really make these forms of Primrose of great value to the Spring garden is how the flowers are remaining fresh and vivid by comparison to many of the poylanthus and large flowered winter bedding forms.

These new varieties from very old lines dating back to at least early 1900's have been slowly bred totally in out door conditions over a period of 38 years. The methodology applied is resulting in very tough genetics which ultimately is good for gardeners everywhere. Reports coming in from all over the world are so far positive. Remember these primroses are not meant to be just show pieces to look good in a pot for a fancy picture these plants must be gardeners plants. These primula are intended to last as perennials and give value to gardeners and can be divided up every few years to spread around the garden or re potted to make great flowering containers or mixed combos.

Primula Moneygall

Reports are coming in from USA as far North as Alaska and South to Dallas, as far East as Tokyo Japan and in Southern Hemisphere Melbourne Australia and Auckland New Zealand. Drumcliff, Innisfree and now many others are being put through their paces in Germany, France, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, UK and other countries. Of course here in Ireland we are putting them through their paces also. So gardeners, nurseries and garden centres can be assured these plants are being tested for endurance as well as for their eye catching attributes. Up to now reports coming in are very positive and garden writers and experts around the world seem to like the surprise element of these beauties. Myself and Joe Kennedy are very grateful for the positivity shown towards these Irish Primroses and as they say in show biz, we think, you ain't seen nothing yet!

Primula Drumcliff

What counts for me is that these plants work for the gardener, give something special to horticulture and stand the test of time.  Knee jerk reactions to how one perceive, good or bad are never of value, it can take over 5 years to really know if a group of plants like this are of value.  The process of breeding selection and final testing before release can and has in the case of these beauties taken a lifetime.  You can keep up to date with images and news about our Irish Primroses on www.irishprimnrose.com which links for now to Irish Primrose facebook page, in due course a new website will be launched. oDOnt forget you can check all the other Irish Primrose stories in previous posts below.

Enjoy the pictures! :) .








Primula Dunbeg



Primula Drumcliff

Primula Innisfree

Primula Claddagh

Primula Tara

 

Primula Dunbeg

Irish Primrose Claddagh wins international perennial award

IPM Essen 2013 January 22nd to 25th

FitzGerald Nurseries exhibited at the international plant trade show IPM Essen for the eight year. The company entered its new introduction Primula Claddagh, part of the Kennedy Irish Primrose range, in the perennial category. IPM Essen is the worlds largest commercial ornamental horticulture show.

Primula Claddagh was awarded best new perennial at this years show. Below were the judges comments about Primula Claddagh.

Judges comment

"As IPM novelty 2013 in the perennial category a new Irish bred variety was awarded: The Primula hybrid 'Claddagh' from Fitzgerald Nurseries. The red leaved, fully winterhardy primrose has convinced the jury with its natural appearance. The wild character of the plant with the honey yellow flowers is ideally suited for natural garden designs."

Show visitors feedback

Visitors to the show were very interested in the whole Irish Primrose range exhibited on our stand in Hall 2. Orders from various parts of the world were very strong. Modern Primrose breeding has taken the humble Primrose to dizzy heights of flower colour, size and form. All thisintensive breeding in the direction of more bedding type production brings the Primrose a long way from its original origin in European gardening. Possibly for this reason our collection of Irish hardy perennial Primroses will help to change focus for future consideration of the Primrose and bring it back into the perennial garden with more frequency.

General background to Irish Primroses

Primroses were perhaps the first garden plants deliberately raised selected and named in Ireland. (Charles Nelson) There are records going back to 1735 of auricula and polyanthus types grown and selected in the Earl of Meath’s Garden in Kilruddery Co Wicklow. A list of these Primroses is collated in A Heritage of Beauty by Charles Nelson.

Nelson tells us that later in the 19th Century the image of the old garden tended by a ‘little old lady'. During this period around the late 1800’s these lady gardeners were the custodians of these old old cultivars preserving them by dividing them and passing them around their circle of friends. Who in turn passed them to theirs and this was mainly how cultivars, species crosses and re-crossed the Irish channel between England and Ireland. Around this time and into the early 1900’s saw the rise of small commercial nurseries in many cases attached to the estates of landed gentry. Nurseries like Lisadell, in County Sligo in Yeats country, Newry Nurseries, Daisy Hill, Slieve Donard,Rowallne Nursery Co Down, Ballawally Alpine Nursery Dublin, Ballyrogan Nursery, Annesgrove Nurseries etc .

Visitors to Ireland with the gardening or Primrose bug at this time were spoiled for choice and picked up many of these old fashioned cultivars preserved by what became known as the Little Old Primrose ladies of Ireland. Charles Nelson again in his book A Heritage of Beauty makes the point that modern society and other pastimes gave cause for a decline in these wonderful plant. I am inclined to agree with him in the opinion that this was an unfortunate trend and the gardening world is the poorer for it. However we have what we have and we must learn from this decline and make the best of what we have.

This was my greatest inspiration to embark on my Primrose path and try to conserve the old and develop the new cultivars bred by the stalwart of modern Irish Primrose cultivars Mr Joe Kennedy. Joe is one of the greatest remaining links between our Irish Primrose heritage and todays modern garden. My collaboration and friendship with Joe is deep rooted.

History of the dark leaved Irish Primrose

Mr Whiteside Dane lived just outside Naas in County Kildare in a townland called Garryard at the end of the 1800’s. He is reputed to have produced a Primrose called Garryard Appleblossom. It is assumed that this may have been a mutation this plant resembled the wild primrose in habit, leaf and growing preferences. It had strong dark leaves over which was carried pink and white flowers. Cecil Monson a Primrose breeder from Co Roscommon documented the story of how his grandmother when moving house in 1898 brought all her treasured Primroses with her. He relayed that in this collection was the only Garryard in existence at that time. He recalled that in 1935 he first saw another Garryard variety called Guinevere in the garden of a Mrs Page-Croft and this variety was raised by another important Primrose lady Mrs Johnson of Kinlough he also records the names of another Primrose lady Miss W.F Wynne of Avoca Co Wicklow.

After WW2 when Cecil Monson returned to Ireland from England he records there were many more of these dark leaved Garryard forms about so the Primrose people had been busy breeding. He mentions many varieties but one of most note bred this time by a Mr Champernowne from England called Enchantress which he says was the closest to the original Garryard that he had seen. Since this time these true dark leaved beauties have been crossed with many cultivars of julianas and alticas. Like many stories of plant history this account of the first dark leaved Primrose known as Garryard is contradicted by the very eminent plant historian Dr Charles Nelson who suggests that the first true Garryard did not appear on the scene in Ireland until 1935. Which ever is the true time of origin it is accepted that Ireland was where the first of the dark foliage forms originated. The original Garryard Appleblossom is said to be a cross between P. Juliae and P. vulgaris. Thanks to Joe Kennedy these foliage traits have been preserved and crossed into various hose in hose and polyanthus type Primroses.  This work has given rise to what is a new and exciting future range of Primroses originating from the work of the many amateur gardeners and breeders who took interest in this wonderful simple plant through the last 150 years of Irish gardening history. But for the wonderful book by Dr Charles Nelsons A Heritage of Beauty many of these old varieties and descriptions and stories of where these varieties originated may be long forgotten and was the source of my original interest in the story of the Irish Primrose. Like Joe my first encounter with native flowers was through the wild Irish Primrose. My work as an Irish nurseryman has been to try and bring these gems to the gardening world having been saved for posterity by Joes and previous Irish gardeners good work.

END

Is Gardening again becoming a necessary life skill?

The co-incidence.

In this blog post I am re-posting a piece I first posted on http://www.myplant.ie/ back in May 2009. A few weeks after I first posted this the article was hacked and my website brought down by a virus planted on the site by hackers. My site hosting and maintenance guys said the attacks were targeted at this article possibly due to the mention of the White House. They fixed my website as luckily we got the attack early. Sometimes its very hard to get away from the feeling some things are predestined. As you will see on my last blog piece this week our primroses landed in the very place I was highlighting in the article below. http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.com/2011/03/gifting-of-kennedy-irish-primrose.html

Due to this amazing coincidence and the fact that the White House Garden project or the trend towards people growing their own vegetables wasn't just a passing fad I decided to re post this piece. I would also like your opinion on the questions posed at the end.

Is Gardening becoming a necessary life skill?

Original post.

This is probably not so hard to believe from some of us who have been around the block before. One of the silver linings for us as Horticulturists in somewhat depressing times like these is that people have more time to spend reassessing their interests, what is important and un-important. So far it looks like the signs so far are telling us that nature, growing your own and generally appreciating the garden, parks and the free or not so expensive things in life are coming out as important.

In the USA there has been a very encouraging and dedicated lobby since last November to have a vegetable garden planted in the grounds of the White House and from the picture here you can see this has been successful and has begun. Congratulations are due to the idea instigator to the people who worked on and supported this project and for achieving such success. Have a look at the official White House Farmer website WWW.WHITEHOUSEFARMER.COM .

With the eyes of the world on the new American first family this image on the White House farmer website has to be one of the most interesting garden images this month and many of us in the Horticulture world could not have imagined such an image emanating from such a prestigious and austere location until now.

A number of months ago I came across a saying from a contemporary American writer called Orson Scott Card which goes 'Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden'.

We have to hope that mass unemployment is not what it will take to get many of us to plant a garden. It's an unfortunate and interesting fact that sometimes it takes shocks of great magnitude to make some of us realize what's important and what's not. We can only hope now that when the world economy does eventually recover some lessons will have been learned and children will remember the folly of some of their elders in neglecting a few basic life skills and considerations that are the essence of our existence. Whether it be for food or for pleasure plant life is beneficial to mankind even the humblest apparently undesirable weed gives benefit to the planet and our immediate environment. For those of us who depend on gardening for a living let's hope that the many skills in the industry the great plants, fruit and vegetables that are produced by our sector will be valued and appreciated much more, by a greater amount of people and a new kind of consumer and gardener.

Lets hope our time in the sun has come.

Now almost two years on what do you think? Have we seen a change of mindset towards people in our profession or trade? Will the young people all over the world who have been exposed to the many projects like the White House Garden be better off for this new trend? Is it too early to say it has changed anything in the longer 25 year perspective when these children will be adults with children of their own?

Plant Climate Protection System

PlantInPod

How many of you have lost that precious plant you should have kept in the greenhouse during cold spells?. Or if you have no greenhouse and intended moving your tender container plant to the garage but forgot and one nights frost was one too many. Maybe the container was too large to move, was forgotten or you were away that weekend.

Together with Swedish company, Living Plant, MyPlant® has been working on this problem for a few years . To cut a long story short, after years of research, visits to the testing centre at the University of Agriculture Alnarp, Sweden with more on site testing here in Ireland, a solution for a number of levels of cold tolerances has been developed. Out of this work has come our PlantinPod strategy. The advantages of the shared knowledge of such a wide temperature range and how such temperatures affect various plant species has been invaluable. This cold protection system for plants is not just a product its a group of different elements and knowledge brought together to deliver the PlantInPod system. This simple system is for people who love gardening on the edge of their climate zone or for home owners with a flair for the best plants the world has to offer. PlantInPod brings more opportunity to maintain those plants which you always want to have but fear your climate zone will kill. Now you can stylishly and professionally create the climate zone your plants need in their own safety pod for those periods they will be at risk. With the decorative finish and an light we have also created a night time garden feature giving a magical glow through the frost laden environment.

All plants are sensitive to cold of a certain extreme or other. Some plants immediately die at a temperature below -1 to -3 degrees Celsius while others can tolerate a few short spells of cold. With our PlantInPod system such plants can survive temperatures down to -20 degrees C. The system has a built in control which ensures that the warming starts before the critical damage temperature is reached. This creates a "micro climate" which can give the plant a comfortable temperature of around plus 5 degrees Celcius for the entire cold period. Also with our customisable root insulation material plant roots are protected from over heating against the direct drying and burning summer heat of clay pots. The protection system is efficient for plants permanently in your garden border as well as your container plants.

As we container plant enthusiasts know plants have two main parts that need protection, roots and shoots. No roots no shoots, you can protect the shoots all you like but if those roots get killed its curtains for the shoots. Many perennial plants can survive dessication of the top growth and re-grow but for most plants survival from year to year depends on maintaining the stems, branches and foliage through the winter.
The new PlantInPod system consists of three different parts which can be used independently of each other. In the most severe weather conditions all three parts used together will protect a very wide range of plants in the most extreme weather conditions. As I write this blog piece I know all you experienced plants people out there might be of immense help to give some initial critique. Am I crazy? Is this system going to be of use to you in a meaningful and practical way? Has anyone been looking for this kind of one stop system? Any comments help or advice will be welcome! I am hopeful that this system will also be useful to botanic gardens and other specialist institutions so please feel free to spread the word about this work we have done.

In the first weeks of 2010 I will be doing a follow up blog article before the launch of the PlantInPod system. I am working on some alternative uses I am testing for the soil and air heater. I will post data from our final pre-launch winter testing. The first public and trade viewing of the system will be at IPM Essen 2010 http://www.messe-essen.de/ Our stand number at IPM is Hall 2 Stand 509.

I look forward to any comments you might have or even seeing you at IPM 2010. If you would like to buy a system from us they areavailable in limited numbers fo European delivery. You can Contact me through our FitzGerald nurseries website www.fitzgerald-nurseries.com

MyPlant Staff Allotments

MyPlant staff Allotments
Have any companies out there organized allotments for their staff? At FitzGerald Nurseries we have and hopefully later in the year we will be able to share our experience with other companies who might be interested in this type of initiative.
Ok so it might be a bit easier for us as some of us are trained horticulturists but we are a bit rusty on growing our own veggies. Like many farmers or others who were brought up when the vegetable plot was a common sight we too have lost the plot (no pun intended) for a while so now we are trying to catch up. This was something we wanted to do for many years and now the catalyst to begin again has arrived.
This year we set up our company allotments beside the nursery. Five staff are actively getting their plots up and running. This pilot scheme looks like its going to bear rewards with a good harvest later this year. After a slightly late start things are now beginning to pop out of the earth. And some interesting varieties of vegetables will be on show later in the year. Vaida and Akvile who are from Lithuania have brought their own seeds from Lithuania with varieties of Cauliflower, Cabbage, Beans and other veg that I have not heard of before so this should be fun to see how these varieties do in our Irish Climate. Ann was off to a good start with her potato seed she brought up from her West Cork home surfacing now and lots of other veg now well established in Anns plot. I have tried out again this year some French potato varieties specially suitable for sauté and salads. We exhibit at a French Horticultural show each year and the last two years I have purchased some varieties commonly used in the Loire Valle area of France so more about these later in the year when we will see how they have performed. I have picked out some French beetroot, onion and carrot varieties to see how flavour and texture compare to home grown varieties.



Sweet Potato (Ipomea batatas)
Sweet potato is one of those healthy and beneficial foods which has been introduced to the Irish diet and supermarket shelves more noticeably in recent years. Normally quite expensive to buy compared to other vegetables so I reckon very well worth trying to grow.
After 12 months research into the possibilities of growing this root vegetable in Irish conditions I have selected the variety Beauregard Improved as the most likely to succeed in our climatic conditions. With fantastic co-operation from some colleagues in USA I managed to get certified stock from Louisiana. Ideally Sweet Potato will require growing in protected greenhouse but we suspect some reasonable yield can be achieved out doors with this variety. Sweet potato can also be grown in patio containers and once our trials are finalized we will post instructions on how to do this in 2010. Testing on how this plant grows in the Irish climate has begun. Already we have fantastic reaction and demand in UK so this plant looks like its could be a success story for 2010 allotment gardeners.

Watch out for future posts about the MyPlant staff allotments and our results on trying some new things just as we do for our garden plant varieties. If you would like to comment on this post please feel free to do so.