Scientific Name: Primula malacoides
Common Name: fairy primrose
Family Name: Primulaceae
Origin: S.E. Asia / Japan / China
Hardiness Zone: Zone 8a: (-12 to -9.5 °C)
Plant Type: Annual (grown as), Flowering pot plant
Mature Size: 0.2 - 0.4m x 0.1 - 0.3m (height x width)
Habit: Upright
Form: Mounded
Texture: Medium
Landscape Uses: Alpine, Bedding plant, Container planting, Indoor plant
Exposure: Full sun only if soil kept moist, Part sun/part shade, Filtered shade
Soil or Media: Humus rich
Leaves: Simple, Basal, Soft flexible, Heavily veined, Pinnate venation, Tomentose, Elliptic, Ovate, Crenate
Flowers: Panicle, White, Violet, Purple, Pink, Magenta, Red, Feb-Mar-Apr
Fruit: Capsule, Brown, May-Jun
Key ID Features:
Leaves basal, oval, 4-8cm long leaves, margins scalloped (irregularly toothed/ incised); flowers with 5 notched petals, mostly in shades of pink to purple mostly with some yellow on the throat (all white cv. available), 20-30 per panicle.