Gardening Cuttings: Primula spread

BARNHAVEN primulas have been flowering in my garden since the New Year, and are now roaring away: blue cowichans with startling yellow eyes; some smudgy cinnamon numbers; and dark, velvety red types, some of which are almost black.

I grew these from the last batch of seed Jared Sinclair sent out from his nursery in the Lake District. Fortunately, though he has retired, his flowers live on.

Michael Loftus has many of them at his nursery, Wootten's Plants at Wenhaston, Suffolk, where he sells beautifully grown Barnhaven primula plants at only 80p each.

Angela Bradford, an academic librarian, has taken on the task of producing seed of the Barnhaven primulas from her farmhouse in Brittany. For a copy of the catalogue, send pounds 1 to: Barnhaven Primroses, 25 Warstones Crescent, Penn, Wolverhampton WV4 4LQ.

The extraordinary story of the Barnhaven primulas is told by Graham Rice in the current issue of Gardens Illustrated (pounds 2.95 from good newsagents).