Shade Gardening: Passion for Primroses, 0 by zonedenial

zonedenial wrote:
In spite of my screen name, I'm pretty much at peace with the fact that a lot of the plants I'd like to grow are only happy in balmier climes than Iowa (much balmier). I will admit that this acceptance came only after a lot of plants ended up in the compost pile. I can tell you now that fuschia magellanica, crape myrtles, and Gresham magnolias don't like it here. I in fact am a regular treasure trove of information about plants that will turn up their toes here. But I am at peace with it now. However I still get techy when I contemplate that a lot of the OTHER plants I'd like to grow are only happy in cooler climates (and yes I've killed a couple of meconopsis). My latest passion (possession?) though has to do with primroses. They are such precious little plants that it is an unending delight to me to brush back the pine needles on the just-thawed earth and see the bright green leaves of the primroses peeking up. However, while I am slowly (painfully) accumulating a variety of them in the garden, a lot of the real jewels don't like our hot, muggy summers, and aren't real crazy about the rest of the year. My question (and I'm trying not to be peevish about it) is that I want to know if people in the North can really grow all kinds of primroses without winter protection, or is that just something you make up to irritate people like me? Does it have to do with snow cover ? Our snow cover is a sometimes thing. I just find it hard to believe that primroses thrive in Alberta. While we're at it, some of the primroses seem to "stem up" out of the ground, looking rather like a parsnip; pubescens is a prime culprit. gives the plant a really ugly appearance. Is this normal or culture-related. I've been digging them up and planting them deeper, but am I doomed to have these primroses planted a couple of feet deep?

Don

Primroses and cyclamen wondering how they ended up in zone 5: