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A cultivar with large pale pink flowers that I bought from Parham Bungalow Plants. Their description says: "Choice slow growing form with palest blush-pink flowers." David Philbey writes in the Bulletin of the Alpine Garden Society: "[K. R. Wooster 66-407]. Large creamy pink flowers, large indistinct cream eye, prominent thrum eye. Very broad petals, shallowly cleft. Slow, midseason, propagate occasionally." Dr A. J. Marcham added some notes about Ken Wooster to his article on Primula allionii in the Bulletin of the Alpine Garden Society: "Ken Wooster began to raise his own varieties of P. allionii in 1945 and continued with his programmes of propagation for over forty years. In that time he raised some 700 seedlings, identified by number together with the year of raising. He used to discourage prospective visitors with the comment, 'I only grow one plant': but when that 'one plant' included the tantalisingly temperamental 'Pinkie' (275/51). the whitest of whites, 'Snowflake' (367/56) , the bicolour 'Marjorie Wooster' (331/52)- all of which gained Awards of Merit - the enchanting hybrids 'Fairy Rose' (180/48), A.M. 1951, 'Purple Emperor' and 'Sunrise' (220/49), one can understand why his visitors were persistent. Moreover, because he used P. allionii var. alba frequently in his crosses, Ken became the 'king' of the white allioniis. No less than fifty of his seedlings were white or cream and they showed considerable variation. 'Snowflake' is the best known and the most widely distributed, but 'Nymph' (282/51), with its distinctively long tube, and 'Serenity' are exciting cultivars. When, in 1984, Ken crossed 'Snowflake' with 'Serenity' (384/56), eight of the resulting nine seedlings flowered white or cream and he considered all of them good enough to grow on. Luckily these seedlings have been preserved and are now in the expert hands of Kath Dryden." |
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| 26th March 2018 | ||